Letters to the Editor | March 18, 2025

President Donald Trump characterizes his effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil as “the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate it.” As is typical, the president is lying about the nature of such broad-based protests. As such, he not only threatens Khalil’s rights as a green-card holder but, by extension, the First Amendment rights of all.

Unfortunately, I know many others in my American Jewish community also see Khalil as the enemy. They believe any protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions is abandoning Israel, endorsing terrorism, being self-hating, lacking understanding, or myriad other distortions. I, for one, will not be cowed into silence, and I urge all Jews, and all other Americans, to freely express their opinions about Khalil, Netanyahu, and the ongoing war. And, if we can be civil when we disagree, so much the better.

Bill Dingfelder, Philadelphia

Agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security searching Columbia residence halls are, according to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, part of Donald Trump’s plan to rid the country of antisemitism. If this is truly a mission and priority for the president, he should start by taking a look at the unelected man he has elevated within his cabinet, the man usually seen lurking beside him: Elon Musk, he of the Nazi salute, and who recently shared a post denying Hitler’s murder of millions of Jews.

Joanne Stiteler, Springfield

Donald Trump is still checking off his vengeance list of any entity he views as the enemy. I believe his decision to cancel $400 million in grants and contracts with Columbia University under the guise of curtailing antisemitism protests is really motivated by a still brooding Trump, who characterized Columbia as a “liberal, disgraceful institution” during his first administration after it published a study that determined downplaying the severity of COVID-19 and delayed shutdowns led to almost 36,000 avoidable U.S. deaths. Fact-checking is ruled as censoring free speech, but censoring the free speech of students and disenfranchising their right to an education is OK? Weaponizing the purse strings against colleges and universities and depriving students of their financial ability to further their education is not OK — it’s unlawful.

K. Mayes, Philadelphia

President Donald Trump’s justifications for pushing to make Canada the 51st state are, as he claimed, that “tariffs would totally disappear” and “there would no longer be a Northern Border problem.” By that reasoning, we ought to prioritize making Mexico the 51st state, since the southern border is a much larger problem. Since all Mexicans would instantly become American citizens, they would no longer have to immigrate, and our southern border would go from nearly 2,000 miles to a little over 500 miles. It would also make the name Gulf of America more accurate.

David Frank DeLuca, Palm Bay, Fla.

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