UVA Students, Faculty Stage Walkout Protest of ICE Detentions

Photo Credit: Benvin Lozada

UVA Law students organized a walkout protest last month in opposition to the recent detention by ICE of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil and other pro-Palestine student activists. Over a hundred law students marched to Main Grounds on March 26, meeting there with students from throughout the university. The law students’ university-wide coordination was a remarkable sign of solidarity for a group that seldom leaves North Grounds.

The students gathered in front of Madison Hall, home to President Jim Ryan’s office across from the Rotunda. There, students read from a letter written by Khalil identifying himself as a “political prisoner” and calling on students to “unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine.”

Professor Thomas Frampton, who teaches a course at the Law School on political prisoners, appeared at the walkout to speak about Khalil’s detention, saying that Khalil is a political prisoner by “any definition we can think of.” Frampton speculated that there may be “many more” American political prisoners soon, and criticized the University for “standing by and either acquiescing or cheering on those activities.”

Professor Frampton explained that the United States is seeking to deport Khalil under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that he says “allows one person, Marco Rubio, to declare that somebody’s mere presence in the United States constitutes a potentially serious adverse [foreign] policy consequence and to remove them regardless of whether they have a green card or whatever their status might be.”

But ICE’s detention of Khalil may still be unlawful, Frampton explained. The rarely-used provision of the INA that ICE is relying on was held unconstitutional in the 1990s by Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, Donald Trump’s sister.[1] While the case was reversed on appeal by then-Circuit Judge Samuel Alito on jurisdictional grounds, Judge Barry’s decision may provide hints at how the New Jersey District Court will rule.

Still, Professor Frampton acknowledged that the government had “at least some semblance of a legal argument” for detaining Khalil. “There are many other obscure provisions that, read in a particular way, might give the government incredible power to enact violence on marginalized communities and the enemies of the state, as they see it,” Frampton explained, saying we are “entering into a pretty dark moment.”

[1] Massieu v. Reno, 915 F. Supp. 681 (D.N.J.), rev'd, 91 F.3d 416 (3d Cir. 1996). Judge Maryanne Trump Barry held the law unconstitutionally vague.