Libertarian supporters of an “Ellis Island” type of immigration-control system are receiving a lesson in the fallacies of their system. They imagine an immigration-control system in which the federal government is vetting every foreigner and rejecting only the few “bad” ones. What they fail to understand is that once federal officials are given the power to determine who comes into the United States, that power is inevitably going to be abused by encompassing ever-growing groups of innocent people.
That’s, in fact, what happened with the Ellis Island system, which was actually one of America’s first immigration-control measures. Given that it is a government-control system, the Ellis Island system is opposite from a genuine open-border system in which people are free to cross borders, such as the open-border system we have between the states.
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Starting out with rejecting people who had tuberculosis, the Ellis Island immigration-control system was gradually expanded to encompass ever-growing groups of people, including anarchists (which ought to concern so-called anarchist libertarians, including those who favor government immigration controls and a border police state), prostitutes, mentally impaired people, people who might become public charges, and Chinese.
Chinese? Oh, yes. The Ellis Island control system — which was called the Angel Island control system on America’s West Coast — was used to exclude all immigrants from China. Yes, all of them! Why? Because they were Chinese, of course. Officials felt that Chinese could never be real Americans because they could never look like real Americans. That’s how the Ellis Island/Angel Island immigration-control system morphed into the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Ellis Island control system later empowered the FDR administration to reject Jews from Germany that Hitler was willing to release during the 1930s — Jews who were later killed in the Holocaust. Justifying his antisemitic decision to reject those Jews, FDR said that America’s “quota” system was filled insofar as German immigrants were concerned. It’s also worth mentioning that Ellis Island was later used to imprison innocent Japanese Americans during World War II.
Thus, it should surprise no one that President Trump is now using America’s immigration-control system to destroy freedom of speech with his effort to use America’s immigration-control system to deport a foreigner who has said things that Trump doesn’t like. That’s reflected in the shameful treatment that Trump and his immigration gendarmes are inflicting on Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born person who is not an American citizen but who is married to an American citizen. Khalid even has the famous “green card” that is part and parcel of America’s decades-old immigration-control system.
However, so far Khalil’s green card and his marriage to an American aren’t doing him any good. Trump’s ICE agents have arrested him and carted him away from New York to Louisiana, where federal judges are reputed to be much more government-friendly when it comes to immigration enforcement than those in New York. It’s a classic case of forum shopping by federal immigration officials.
Khalil’s crime? As a student at Columbia University, he advocated for Palestinians and opposed Israel’s actions in Gaza. Therefore, because he is not standing foursquare in favor of the Israeli government and its actions in Gaza, Khalil is considered to be “antisemitic” and, therefore, U.S. officials say, has forfeited his right to be in the United States. For good measure, he is also being accused of being a supporter of Hamas. Since the U.S. government has labeled Hamas a terrorist organization, Khalil is also being accused of being a supporter of terrorism and, therefore, subject to being deported on that ground as well.
Let’s remind ourselves of some important points about free speech.
Freedom of speech is not a privilege that comes from the federal government or even from the Constitution, which is the document that called the federal government into existence. It is a fundamental, natural, God-given right that precedes the existence of government. As Jefferson pointed out in the Declaration of Independence, liberty adheres to all people, not just to American citizens. Thus, the First Amendment doesn’t give people freedom of speech; instead, it prohibits the federal government from infringing on freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech entails the right to say whatever a person wants, no matter how ugly, despicable, and unpopular it might be. When people are free to say only what is officially approved by government, they are not free. It is only when people are free to say anything they want that they can be considered free.
Thus, everyone — Americans and foreigners alike — have the absolute right under genuine principles of freedom of speech to criticize and condemn Israel, Jews, the Vatican, Catholics, Muslims, blacks, Italians, Asians, gays, or anyone else to their heart’s content. They have the right to question the Holocaust and claim that Hitler didn’t kill one single Jew. They have the right to question the legality by which the state of Israel was formed and also the right to question the legality by which the United States acquired the northern half of Mexico.
In fact, people also have the right to advocate terrorism, mass killings, and serial killings and to openly praise terrorists, mass killers, and serial killers. They have the right to praise the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. They also have the right to celebrate the U.S. government’s torture of people at Guantanamo Bay and the CIA’s and Pentagon’s state-sponsored assassinations of both Americans and foreigners.
That’s what genuine free-speech is all about — the right to say what government officials or others say is ugly, despicable, or unapproved.
Mahmoud Khalil doesn’t belong in a U.S. prison or detention center, regardless of what he said. But it’s worth noting that President Trump is not directly punishing Khalil for what he said. Instead, he is using America’s system of immigration controls as the vehicle to destroy freedom of speech. It is a classic example of how one illegitimate government infringement on liberty can be used to destroy another.
