In trying to deport a Palestinian anti-war activist, Mahmoud Khalil, Donald Trump follows in the footsteps of another former Republican president. Richard Nixon tried to deport Beatles member John Lennon in 1972.
Trump, during an October 2023 campaign stop in Iowa, pledged to “revoke the student visas of radical, anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners at our colleges and universities” and “send them straight back home.” Khalil, the holder of a green card, which grants lawful permanent resident status, was a Columbia University graduate who led pro-Palestine protests at the school last year.
Trump’s use of government agencies to suppress anti-war protesters echoes that of Nixon, whose administration used the FBI and CIA to surveil, infiltrate and harass anti-Vietnam war peace groups. The Nixon administration also called on the Internal Revenue Service to audit the president’s critics.
The ex-president even debated a secret plan to suspend the Fourth Amendment and make nationwide mass arrests, a proposal eventually vetoed by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Since virtually all of the anti-war protesters in the ’60s and ’70s were American citizens, the Nixon administration could not use the threat of visa cancellation and deportation to intimidate them.
“Give Peace a Chance”
One high-profile foreign visa holder, however, did catch the Nixon administration’s attention when he arrived in New York in 1971. His name was John Lennon.
Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, came to New York to escape from London and the constant attention of the aggressive British tabloids. The Beatles had recently broken up, and the couple sought the anonymity of a busy, crowded city: New York. They were also involved in a legal fight to obtain custody of Kyoko, Ono’s daughter with her second husband, Richard Cox. The girl and her father were believed to be hiding in the U.S. Lennon, a U.K. citizen and Ono, a Japanese citizen, initially obtained short-term visas allowing them to stay in the U.S.
In 1971, Lennon was the most famous musician in the world. His song, “Give Peace a Chance,” his first solo effort apart from the Beatles, had charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to become an anthem for the rapidly growing anti-war movement in the U.S.
Nixon’s political ambitions and Lennon’s past collide
Nixon decided to run for reelection in 1972. Thanks to the 26th Amendment, it would be the first election in which 18 year olds could vote, and Nixon’s campaign feared Lennon could lead a nationwide youth movement against him. That fear intensified after Lennon and Ono headlined a benefit concert in Ann Arbor Michigan on Dec. 10, 1971, drawing 15,000 people. The concert, benefiting White Panther John Sinclair, featured Stevie Wonder, as well as speeches by Jane Fonda, Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale.
Rumors reached the campaign that a similar protest concert might be staged in Miami Beach in August 1972, at the same time as the Republican National Convention. (The concert was never held.)
The administration began working to deport Lennon and Ono. In March 1973, the Nixon’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) ruled that Lennon had to leave the U.S. within 60 days. The musician was ruled “deportable” because he had a criminal record — a 1968 arrest in London for half an ounce of cannabis. Ono was allowed to stay — and granted status as a “permanent resident alien” — so she could pursue her efforts to find her daughter.
Lennon was able to hire top immigration attorneys, who successfully fought the deportation in federal court. While his attorneys were able to extend the 60-day order many times, Lennon lived under a cloud while the appeals moved forward. The stress of the ordeal weighed on him. Lennon drank heavily, and in 1973, he separated from Ono for about a year, a period he later dubbed his “Lost Weekend.” In August 1974, after Nixon’s illegalities were exposed in the Watergate hearings, he resigned; then-Vice President Gerald Ford went on to assume the presidency.
“Selective deportation based upon secret political grounds”
In October 1975, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Lennon could stay in the U.S. The court found the arrest for a tiny amount of marijuana was not sufficient grounds to bar him from the U.S.
The ruling warned that “the courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds.” The Ford administration dropped the case, and Lennon was given his green card allowing permanent resident status.
Lennon and Ono no longer had to worry about deportation. On October 9, 1975, their son Sean was born. In November 1980, Lennon released the “Double Fantasy” album to lukewarm reception, only three weeks before his murder.
Political activists, singled out by GOP administrations
Both Lennon and Khalil are political activists singled out by Republican administrations bent on stymying individuals who publicly protested their policies, even if it means ignoring the Constitution. Their cases, however, diverge in significant aspects. Lennon, of course, was very wealthy and could hire a top-rank legal team. He also had the vocal support of many well-known musicians, artists and writers.
Khalil is a graduate student, who had been living in an apartment with his pregnant wife, did not have any criminal background and was not alleged to have violated any U.S. laws. While the INS sought to deny Lennon a visa based upon a prior criminal act, Khalil has no known arrests. His deportation is being sought on a little-known provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act that authorizes the U.S. secretary of state — who currently is Marco Rubio — to deport foreigners deemed to create “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the U.S.
While the 1973 and 2025 cases are based on different sections of the immigration law and being prosecuted by different presidents, the message is the same. Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer, stated the following after his March 8 arrest: “He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent, in violation of the First Amendment. The government’s objective is as transparent as it is unlawful.”
The Trump administration had attempted to block Khalil’s legal efforts to fight back. A federal district court judge in New York has denied the move, ordering the case to be transferred to New Jersey. Khalil, who is currently being detained in Louisiana, appeared on Friday in immigration court.
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