Khalil, who was detained by immigration authorities for three months earlier this year over his advocacy for Palestinian rights, was ordered deported to Algeria or Syria on Wednesday afternoon. The Palestinian green card holder, who was born in Syria, became a flashpoint after his detention was explicitly tied to his activism against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The news that he may now be expelled from the country should have been met with equal or greater condemnation from liberals and the left than Kimmel’s was. (Khalil appears safe so long as his federal case against the original detention proceeds, but the new immigration ruling was under new pretenses, meaning he could be deported when the federal trial ends.)
It’s a far more dangerous and brutal consequence of speech the White House doesn’t like than a suspension from late night hosting duties. Never mind the imbalance — the two cases didn’t even merit equal treatment in the eyes of the corporate media.
Kimmel is certainly more prominent and famous — a household name to much of the country — than Khalil is. That isn’t the only reason for the differing levels of outrage. Indeed, the recognition gap was in large part thanks to the corporate media’s failings to properly cover Khalil’s detention in the first place, due to the uniqueness of the main issue animating his ordeal: his advocacy for Palestine.