Beyond U.S., Democracies Weaponize Free Speech in Immigration Crackdowns
Despite U.S. administration's criticism of Europe, its targeting of immigrants for unpopular speech mimics similar policies across the Atlantic.
"Secretary Rubio’s attempt to deport Mr. Khalil violates the First Amendment and betrays more than two centuries of American commitment to free and open expression.” This is how FIRE and several other civil liberties groups described the Trump administration’s decision to arrest and seek to deport Columbia student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. Trump meanwhile ominously posted that this was the “first arrest of many to come.” An Indian postdoctoral fellow’s arrest under the same Cold War-era statute last week bears Trump’s warning out.
But the U.S. is not alone among open democracies in the use of an immigrant's speech and unpopular and incendiary viewpoints as grounds for removal. Unfortunately, the retreat from the fundamental values of liberal societies, on which JD Vance lectured Europeans in his Munich Security Conference speech, is happening on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the UK, the home secretary has the power to revoke a lawful resident’s visa on the grounds that their presence in the UK is “not conducive to the public good,” regardless of whether they have committed any crime. Soon after the October 7 attacks, the government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated it would remove visitors to the UK if they incited antisemitism, even if their conduct falls “below the criminal standard.”
In a case with clear parallels to that of Mahmoud Khalil, pro-Palestinian activist Dana Abuqamar, a dual Jordanian-Canadian citizen and Palestine activist at Manchester University, had her visa revoked in December 2023. The minister’s decision related to her public statements immediately following Hamas deadly October 7 attack on Israeli civilians. On October 8, 2023, Abuqamar said to a journalist, “We are really, really full of joy of of of [sic] what has happened” – statements which she soon clarified by making clear that she never condoned the killing of innocent civilians, nor mentioned Hamas. The home secretary’s decision was eventually overturned by an immigration tribunal, which held that the revocation amounted to a “disproportionate and therefore unlawful interference with her right to free speech under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.”
Earlier this year, a Turkish academic working at a UK university also had his visa revoked because police found a ‘Hamas media document’ on his phone. This too echoes a Brown University medical professor’s recent deportation to Lebanon due to “sympathetic photos and videos” of prominent Hezbollah figures found on her phone by immigration officials.
The UK is not the only European country to use immigration law to crackdown on unfavored speech. In June 2024, Germany's government agreed on a draft law to deport those promoting 'terrorist crimes,' including through social media likes on offending posts. Condoning or glorifying a single terrorist offense would be sufficient to consider a “serious interest in deportation.” A proposal to strip dual nationals of citizenship for committing crimes, which in Germany includes hate speech, has been recently floated by several German states and incoming Chancellor Merz.
In April 2024, Germany also banned the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, from entering the country. Following the online publication of his speech for the 2024 Berlin Palestine Congress, Varoufakis was issued with a ban on ‘all political activity’ that, he thinks, has been used only a few times against Islamic State operatives. Varoufakis’ speech condemned antisemitism and violence against civilians on both sides but qualified this by stating: “What I do not condemn is armed resistance to an Apartheid system.” The Congress was partially organised by a group of left-wing, anti-Zionist Jews, several of whom are Israelis.
European countries including Denmark and the UK also bar foreign nationals from entering their territories based on extremely vague reasons related to public order and safety. Such entry bans have not only included Islamic religious extremists, but also the anti-immigration Dutch politician Geert Wilders and the controversial conservative US radio host Michael Savage (both banned from entering the UK in 2009). Likewise, in 2017 the American evangelical pastor and firebrand Terry Jones was put on a list of extremist religious preachers (most of whom were Muslims) banned from entering Denmark. The ban against Wilders was eventually overturned by a judge who held that, “Substantial evidence of actual harm would be needed before it would be proper for a government to prevent the expression and discussion of matters that might form the opinions of legislators, policy makers and voters."
In France, long-term legal residents have been removed from the country, helped along by a January 2024 immigration law. Owing to its hardline approach, the figurehead of the French nationalist party, Marine Le Pen, exalted the law as an “ideological victory” for her camp. Macron’s government did not hesitate to enforce the new law.
In February 2024, Mahjoub Mahjoubi, a Tunisian Imam and resident in France since the 1980s whose five children are French citizens, was expelled from the country for hate speech – less than twelve hours after he was arrested. He was accused of antisemitism and saying that the French flag was “Satanic” and had “no value with Allah,” and arrested on February 22, 2024 at his home on charges of “inciting terrorism.” The speed with which Mahjoubi was deported raises serious due process concerns; he was unable to have his case heard before a judge prior to being removed from the country.
In his decision, the interior minister said the imam's rhetoric could incite his followers to commit acts of violence at a time when there is a particularly high terrorist threat following October 7. Mahjoubi’s deportation adds to a lengthening list of imams to have been expelled from France in recent years for anti-republican views. Relatedly, in 2023 44 people "deemed dangerous and linked to radical Islam" were expelled from France, an increase of 26 percent on 2022.
In 2018 Macron’s government deported Doudi Abdelhadi for incitement to discrimination and violence. In 2022 it followed up by deporting Ahamada Mmadi for quoting a sexist and discriminatory Hadith and Hassan Iquioussen for “especially virulent anti-Semitic speech” and sermons calling for women's “submission” to men. For these speeches, in his deportation order the interior minister accused Iquioussen of “encouraging his audience to separatism.” Iquioussen was in fact born, raised and resided in France until his expulsion aged 58; his lawyer claimed that his deportation was based on statements from 10-20 years previously. What distinguishes these earlier cases from Mahjoubi’s fate, however, is that their deportations were all subject to lengthy legal processes, reducing the scope somewhat for arbitrariness.
Taking account of these European developments, American free speech exceptionalism begins to look less exceptional under Trump’s tough immigration crackdown. In fact, one might argue that Trump is copy-pasting the very European approach to free speech that Vice-President Vance claimed constituted a “threat” to European democracy. Only the Trump administration seems to insist that it can do this without any regard to the First Amendment, while European countries at the very least have to balance deportation with the free speech protections in the European Convention on Human Rights. To be sure, the ECHR’s protections against “hate speech” and “glorification of terrorism” are very limited. But they do provide some shelter against the sort of unfettered discretion to deport even permanent residents for lawful speech, that the Trump administration claims it enjoys under U.S. law.
Jacob Mchangama is the Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech and a research professor at Vanderbilt University. He is also a senior fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and the author of Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media.
Nick Queffurus is a researcher at The Future of Free Speech.