What A Day - Trump’s Law-Bending Attack on Migrants

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

In both court and in interviews Monday, the Trump administration doubled down on its decision over the weekend to deport more than 250 migrants, mostly Venezuelans. About half of them were removed under the Alien Enemies Act, a centuries-old war-time law President Donald Trump has invoked to deport suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua with little to no due process. It's just one of a handful of really scary anti-immigration efforts the White House has undertaken recently, including the push to deport Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Kahlil over his involvement in campus protests against the war in Gaza. Nico Perrino, executive vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, talks about how Kahlil's case sits at the intersection of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration and free speech.And in headlines: Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the agency that runs Voice of America, the White House said it has expelled South Africa's ambassador to the U.S., and Harvard University announced plans to make attending the school more financially realistic for middle- and low-income families.Correction: During our interview with journalist Josh Barro on Monday's show, we said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is 80 years old. He's 74. We regret the error.Show Notes:Check out FIRE's letter – https://tinyurl.com/4ppmdsdnSubscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8Support victims of the fire – votesaveamerica.com/reliefWhat A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Tuesday, March 18th. I'm Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that found out that Mercury is in retrograde until April 7th, which checks out despite me not knowing what that means. On today's show, President Donald Trump dismantles Voice of America, and the administration expels South Africa's ambassador to the U.S. But first, let's start with immigration, because it's been a scary few days for a lot of people living in the U.S. who aren't citizens, whether they're here legally on a green card or visa, or they're undocumented, or you just happen to love those people very much. On Monday, the Trump administration doubled down on its decision over the weekend to deport

more than 250 migrants, mostly Venezuelans. About half of them were removed under the Alien Enemies Act, a centuries-old law President Donald Trump has invoked to deport suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Trump was asked about his use of the wartime law to deport migrants with little to no due process. Speaking on Air Force One Monday, the president said, this is a war. Trump was asked about his use of the wartime law to deport migrants with little to no due process Speaking on Air Force One Monday, the president said this is a war In many respects, it's more dangerous than war because you know in war they have uniforms You know who you're shooting at, you know who you're going after So it's not a war

But the big question is whether the administration carried out these deportations in violation of a federal judge's order Saturday to turn back the flights. The White House says it didn't, that the planes were over international waters by the time the judge issued his ruling, and therefore it didn't apply. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, had the most unhinged, does this mean we're in the constitutional crisis? take on that question when he told Fox and friends, basically, fuck those judges, Trump for king. I wake up every morning loving my job because I work for the greatest president in the history of my life and we're going to make this country safe again. I'm proud to be a part of this administration. We're not stopping. I don't care what the judges think.

I don't care what the left thinks. We're coming. But when asked about Homan's comments later at the White House press briefing, press secretary Caroline Levitt said, nothing to see here folks, everything is totally cool and aboveboard. So I'm only asking just to be clear for the American people, it is the administration's belief that they were, that you feel like you were bound to comply by the judge's orders. We are complying with the judge's orders. The judge who issued the order blocking the flights, well, he had questions about that.

During a tense hearing Monday, he asked the government to give him more details by noon Eastern today, proving it did not violate his order. Or at least a better explanation for why they can't answer that question. But the mess over the Alien Enemies Act is just one of a handful of really terrifying deportation efforts the White House has undertaken recently, including against people who were in this country with full legal documentation. A doctor from Lebanon with a valid visa was detained and turned back upon her return to the U.S. after visiting family.

The Department of Homeland Security says she attended the funeral of the former leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah last month, but hasn't said whether she committed a crime or immigration violation. A Columbia University student from India who was involved in the campus protests over the war in Gaza said she fled to Canada after her student visa was abruptly revoked and immigration agents showed up at her door. DHS accused her of being a terrorist sympathizer. And then, most notably, there was the arrest and detention of another Columbia student,

Mahmoud Khalil, earlier this month over his involvement in pro-Palestine protests on campus. He has not been charged with a crime, but the Trump administration is arguing it has the right to revoke his green card and deport him anyway. It wants to use an obscure law that gives Secretary of State the power to remove people he or she deems to have quote Potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the country. Hey Maybe you're hearing all of this and thinking yeah serves those people right to get kicked out

Some of them could be gang members or enter the u.s. Illegally. Maybe they hold views that you deeply oppose That's valid, but that's actually not the point. The lack of recourse and due process these people are receiving is, not to mention the potential violation of a judge's order. That should scare everyone, including you. We're going to talk specifically about Khalil's case and what it says about the Trump administration's approach to immigration and free speech. I spoke with Nico Perino about it. He's the executive vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE.

FIRE has been sounding the alarm about Jalil's case since he was arrested. The organization wrote a letter to the White House last week demanding answers as to why he was arrested and if he'll be given due process. Nico, welcome to What a Day. Thanks for having me. Have we ever seen a case like this before

where the federal government has tried to deport a permanent resident for participating in acts of dissent? And I think it's important to keep emphasizing permanent residents. Like we are not talking about someone who is visiting on a visa. We are talking about someone who has acquired permanent residency, which even if you marry a citizen

is still a very involved process. Have we seen something like this before? I have to think back to the Palmer raids actually in 1919 when the government went after thousands of alleged anarchists, communists, left-wing radicals. Even then the folks got a hearing before a judge. I have talked to immigration attorneys and they had said they haven't seen anything quite like this. And I think there are probably like 12 novel constitutional questions involved in this

one arrest and detention. At a point sooner rather than later, the courts are going to have to figure out how the First Amendment applies to lawful permanent residents in the United States. Now the Trump administration claims it can legally deport Khalil under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Can you break down what this act does and the specific clause the administration is invoking to make its case? Yeah, well I've actually got Mahmoud Khalil's notice to appear document here in my hands. They're citing the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives the Secretary of State

permission to deport someone if they have reasonable ground to believe that the person's presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States. So this is essentially creating unbounded discretion for the Secretary of State to deport someone if they're quote adversely affecting foreign policy consequences for the United States. So what does that actually mean? I think it means whatever the Secretary of State says it means. I think it can just be weaponized and used by a tool for administrations to go after

their political opponents or whoever is dissenting from their foreign policy at any given time. And that's dangerous. You have 13 million green card holders here in the United States. The Trump administration has also claimed that Khalil led, quote, activities aligned to Hamas by organizing pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia. In an interview with NPR, DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar said this when asked if protesting is a deportable offense. Is protesting a deportable offense? Like I said, you're focused on protests. I'm focused on it's a visa process.

He went through a legal process, came into the country. Are you saying that he lied on his application? He's a lawful permanent resident married to an American citizen. I think if he would have declared he's a terrorist, we would have never let him out. And what did he engage in that constitutes terrorist activity? I mean, Michelle, I watched it on TV. It's pretty clear. No, it isn't.

What's your response to this argument that it's all on TV, playing his day, that Helly Old's actions warrant deportation? My response is more of the head scratching. It's these shifting justifications. But if you look at the notice to appear, all it says is that the Secretary of State has this discretion. There's nothing on there about him lying on his green card or visa applications.

There's nothing in there about him engaging in any sort of unlawful activity. And all you're hearing from the administration right after they arrest and detain him is that they're going after pro-Hamas terrorist sympathizers. Donald Trump posted something on true social about how they're going to be purging campuses of un-American activity, which leads me to wonder, it's like, are we going to start another house un-American activities committee to determine what is un-American activity. Now, Mahmood Khalil was a spokesperson and mediator for the encampment at Columbia. He is involved in those student groups, but you're allowed to be involved in controversial student groups here on United States campuses.

We tell students to come from foreign countries, often countries with authoritarian dictatorships, to come here to the United States and bask in the freedom of speech and discussion and academic freedom that our campuses allow for. But now we're essentially telling them, watch what you say. I don't know that that's the message of liberty that we want to send to to foreigners or to lawful permanent residents who wish to stay here. Now, if you'll allow me to be a giant dork because this really interests me, the arguments that I'm hearing,

and you actually brought up 1919 a little bit earlier, there's a case from 1919, Abrams versus United States. And this kind of reminds me of that a little bit. Can you tell me about that case and specifically Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's legendary dissent? Yeah, so this was a case that involved Eastern Europeans protesting against America's involvement in the Bolshevik Revolution, essentially calling for a general strike because they didn't want America to send troops or material to put down the Soviets or to fight against the Soviets.

And they threw some leaflets out of windows in one instance, calling for this general strike. And they were thrown in jail for this. And these were foreigners, they weren't citizens. And Justice Oliver Rendell Holmes wrote a dissent in that case, and it was called the Great Dissent. It was the diss descent that changed the course of the First Amendment's history.

Prior to that, the First Amendment meant nothing. Anti-war protesters, labor radicals, were all thrown in jail Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for their speech. And from there, the First Amendment started to grow into the thing it is today. And it all came from a dissent defending the rights of a foreigner here in the United States. And the Supreme Court has referenced this dissent countless times throughout the last 100 plus

years. And so we ignore that dissent and all the wisdom and law that came from it in this rationale that the government is using right now to go after Mahmoud Khalil. Something that struck me is that the Khalil case isn't even about opinions about the United States. They are about opinions with regard to another country, in this case, Israel's actions in Gaza. So how does that play into how the administration is handling this?

Like, it is completely legal to be in the United States and say, fuck America. I could do that all day if I wanted to, but I have things to do. But this is actually in many cases about talking about another country that is not the United States. to do. But this is actually in many cases about talking about another country that is not the United States. And that's why this is confusing is that you can

criticize America, you can criticize China, you can criticize Russia, you can criticize Israel. All of this is protected by the First Amendment. But I think what you have here is an administration that was brought into office because a lot of people in America didn't like how the protests had unfolded on college campuses since October 7th and many of those protests involved unlawful activity building occupations, vandalism, preventing people from accessing different portions of campus, but a lot of those protests also involved protected speech and you need to be able to sort between the two. And Mahmood Khalil would not wear a mask at these protests.

That was a principle of his, the New York Times report on this. He would not wear a mask at any of these protests. So he was very visible when he was attending and working as a spokesperson and mediator. And I think because he was visible, they were able to identify him. And now they're going after him to deport him as well.

But maybe the case isn't as good for deporting him as it would have been maybe one of the building occupiers per se. Nico, thank you so much for being here. Happy to be here anytime. That was my conversation with Nico Perino. He's the executive vice president of FIRE. We'll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe,

leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. Water Day is brought to you by Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon makes high protein, zero sugar cereal and treats reinvented from your childhood. So much nostalgia. Magic Spoon is also launching a brand new high protein granola. True to the Magic Spoon promise, it's packed with protein and so crunchy and so good. Magic Spoon's high protein treats are crispy, crunchy, airy, and an easy way to get 12 grams of protein on the go.

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They lose on a daily basis, which is why Donald Trump increasingly is now trying to attack and intimidate lawyers. Maryland Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin says even though President Donald Trump, quote, gives the finger to the courts every single day, Democrats are winning on a daily basis in court. Raskin spoke with the Whataday Newsletter Monday and said Democrats are defeating the administration's efforts to nullify birthright citizenship and that they're working to stop the unconstitutional spending freeze and halt the mass sacking of probationary employees.

One of the victories we won last week was a federal district court decision in the District of Columbia finding that DOJ is in fact a federal agency. That means that DOJ is subject to FOIA and the Privacy Act. In that decision, a federal judge ruled that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency must respond to public records requests, as it's likely subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Raskin said his optimism comes from looking, quote, through the prism of the Constitution. Donald Trump has already lost several times in this administration in the court. I think it was last week or perhaps the week before there was a five

to four decision upholding lower court rulings that the administration had to spend $2.1 billion of AID money that they had held up. And so the court stood with Congress's power of the purse under Article 1. Raskin says there have been more than 120 cases filed against the administration so far and the court is doing its job to uphold the law. Raskin says there have been more than 120 cases filed against the administration so far, and the court is doing its job to uphold the law. The Trump administration says South Africa's ambassador has been officially expelled from the United States. That's after Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared him persona non grata on Twitter last week

and called him a, quote, race-baiting politician who hates America and President Trump. South Africa's government called the decision to expel Ambassador Ibrahim Rasool quote regrettable. In his Friday tweet Rubio cited an article from the right-wing news website Breitbart. It linked to a video of Rasool giving a webinar speech to a South African think tank. In it Rasool accused Trump of leading a white supremacist movement and pinned it in part to changing demographics in the US. At the, Russell accused Trump of leading a white supremacist movement and pinned it in part to changing demographics in the U.S. At the same time, the Trump administration has created an extremely small carve out in its draconian anti-immigration policies specifically for South Africa's minority white population. Trump signed an executive order last month,

saying his White House would prioritize resettling white, quote, Afrikaner refugees. He also halted all foreign aid to the country. It's tied to a conspiracy in right-wing circles that white South Africans face persecution from the country's majority black post-apartheid government. But the white South Africans are really doing just fine. While they only make up about 7% of the population they still own at least half the land. Trump signed an executive order Friday to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the office that runs Voice of America. The federally funded broadcast service was founded during World War II to deliver news around the world to combat Nazi propaganda.

It has a global audience of hundreds of millions of listeners. Trump has always hated VOA, ever since his first term in office. He and Republicans have accused the network of being biased against conservatives. Co-president Elon Musk called on the government to shut down VOA last month, branding it as an outlet run by quote, radical left crazy people. The director of VOA said Saturday that nearly all staffers of the network were put on indefinite paid leave in the wake of Trump's executive order. That's more than a thousand journalists and producers.

Some VOA staffers told Politico that they were on their way to work when they received an email telling them not to come in. It's unclear what this means for Kerry Lake. The Arizona Republican, Trump, tapped to lead the agency for global media, now that the agency might not exist anymore. Lake, a failed gubernatorial and Senate candidate, was set to direct VOA. It's giving, um, Linda McMahon. Harvard has plans to make attending the school more financially realistic.

Harvard University president Alan Garber announced Monday that starting in the 2025-2026 academic school year, undergraduate tuition will be free for students whose family's annual income is $200,000 or less. And for students whose families make $100,000 or less annually, Harvard College will be even more free. The Harvard Gazette said on top of tuition, billed expenses like food, housing, health insurance, and travel costs will be covered. Is it too late to see if I can get into Harvard? The decision comes as the Trump administration is working tirelessly to cut diversity efforts in schools, the federal government, the military, basically anything it can get its hands on.

Garber said, quote, the federal government, the military, basically anything it can get its hands on. Garber said, quote, putting Harvard within financial reach for more individuals widens the array of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that all of our students encounter, fostering their intellectual and personal growth. Other schools like the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have also announced similar tuition plans since the Supreme Court's decision to end affirmative action in higher education. And that's the news. Before we go, yesterday I talked a bit about why Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer backed

up the GOP government spending bill. If you want to hear Dan Pfeiffer break it all down even further, check out a clip from his subscriber-exclusive series, Polar Coaster, on the Pods of America YouTube channel. For the full episode, subscribe to our Friends of the Pod community at Crooked.com slash Friends or directly through the Pods of America Apple feed. That's all for today. If you liked the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, tell me which food cannot be paired with either peanut butter or hot sauce, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just about how this question, the product of sports journalist Mike Golick Jr. has overtaken my entire life, like me,

What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Costin and I am completely serious. Tell me, which food cannot be paired with either peanut butter or hot sauce? What A Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Four. Our producer is Michelle Eloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Craig Walters, and Julia Claire.

Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, our executive producer is Adrian Hale. Our theme music is by Colin Gileard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.