JD Vance and a moral defense of the possibility of deporting people with green cards or student visas

JD Vance dove head first into the controversy over Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the Department of State revoked both his student visa and his green card. He stressed that the decision was made to safeguard the "national security" of the United States, the vice president also added a moral argument to the debate.

Khalil's arrest took place last March 10, just days after it was reported that the Trump administration would begin canceling visas for foreign students who support terrorist groups, especially Hamas. Indeed, the young man is part of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a group that supports Hamas' "armed resistance."

Vance was asked about it in an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, opting to leave a different answer than the one circulating in the public.

"A green card holder, even if I like that green card holder, It doesn't have an indefinite right to be in the United States of America, right? American citizens have different rights from people who have green cards, from people who have student visas. (...) This is not fundamentally about free speech, and to me, yes, it's about national security, but it's also more importantly about who do we, as an American public, decide gets to join our national community?" he countered.

"And if the Secretary of State and the President decide this person shouldn't be in America and they have no legal right to stay here, it's as simple as that," the vice president added.

Ingraham then asked him about the possibility of more arrests soon.

"I think we'll certainly see some people who get deported on student visas if we determine that they don't, that it's not in the best interest of the United States to have them in our country. So yeah, I don't know how high that number's going to be, but you're going to see more," the former Ohio senator added.