‘send Them To Jail’: Sen. Tuberville Demands Pro-palestine Demonstrators Be Locked Up

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said people who protest Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza should be jailed.

On Saturday, 30-year-old Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate, was arrested at his university-owned home by federal agents in front of his pregnant wife and sent to a detention facility in Louisiana.

Khalil, a Palestinian, had organized demonstrations in support of Gaza that the Trump administration has claimed were “aligned to Hamas.” The detainee was in the U.S. legally on a student visa and a green card, which the feds now say have been revoked. He has not been charged with a crime, and his arrest has outraged legal scholars who say his activities are protected by the First Amendment.

Tuberville appeared on Fox Business on Wednesday and – like most other Republicans who have spoken publicly of the arrest – voiced his support.

“[W]hen it comes to protesters, we gotta make sure we treat all of them the same,” he said. “Send them to jail. Free speech is great, but hateful, hate, free speech is not what we need in these universities. And they don’t need to be doing things that they’re preaching from Hamas, about anti-Semitism.”

Khalil has challenged his detention in federal court. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman is set to decide whether Khalil’s transfer to Louisiana broke the law because his attorney challenged the arrest while Khalil was in New York. Furman had already prevented Khalil’s deportation pending a hearing.