City Council members unloaded on President Donald Trump’s administration Wednesday for detaining and seeking to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead student protests at Columbia University, his graduate school alma mater.
The Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations took no vote on the resolution championed by progressive firebrand Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th). That’s because the resolution had been sent to the Rules Committee to slow it down.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th), the man behind that stalling tactic, was a lonely voice against the resolution. He accused his colleagues of “cherry-picking when they start their sympathy and when they start their anger and their rage.”
That anger and rage, he noted, always starts after Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, some of whom remain in captivity. “Did we forget that part?” Lopez asked.
Lopez said there is a “huge difference between supporting Palestinians and supporting terrorists.” He believes Khalil crossed that line. “When you have someone who proudly supports that day and the actions taken, it’s hard to have sympathy for that individual.”
Lopez said his colleagues want to “use this as a moment to bash Donald Trump,” and argued freedom of speech “doesn’t apply when it puts people’s lives in danger. It becomes hate speech when it endangers communities.”
“This is not an American doing this. … Visas and even green cards — that is not a right. It is a privilege extended by this country, ” Lopez said.
Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) called the resolution condemning Khalil’s arrest and demanding his release a “no-brainer for me.”
Hadden said it’s important to speak out against “an executive branch and a president and his enablers and co-conspirators who will eventually be held criminally accountable for the things they are doing that are violations of our Constitution.”
“We are all at risk of being a victim of the same kind of extra-judicial, completely illegal actions that the federal government is taking,” Hadden said.
“It’s not happening just to Mr. Khalil. It’s happening to people every day. I feel like every day this week, I’ve read a news article about someone being scooped up. Someone being stopped at the border.”
Committee Chair Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33th) fired back at Lopez — who left the room after speaking — for suggesting her committee has no business entertaining the Khalil resolution.
“We are talking about lack of due process. We are talking about facing fascism. We are talking about an authoritarian government that is choosing to disappear people just because they are dissidents. Just because they are saying something that the government doesn’t like,” Rodriguez Sanchez said.
“This is scary and everybody should be alarmed. I do not understand how anyone can say that we are wasting our time or that there are more important things to talk about.”
Last year, Sigcho-Lopez survived an attempt to remove him as Housing Committee chair for appearing at a City Hall rally after an American flag was burned to protest U.S. support for Israel.
He, too, lashed out at Lopez for venting — and then disappearing.
“Walking out of this room after saying such inflammatory remarks is not only irresponsible, but fails our constituents on the leadership of the moment to speak against these atrocities,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “We have a responsibility to protect due process. There’s nothing more American than freedom of speech, the First Amendment right. I challenge anybody to tell us otherwise.”
An Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, Khalil is a legal resident of the United States who is married to an American citizen.
He helped lead pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia. He was arrested and detained by federal immigration agents in New York on March 8 after his lawyer said his green card had been revoked by the Trump administration.