Non-U.S. Citizen Hamas Supporters Are Not Entitled to Constitutional Rights
DeSantis to strip foreign students visas who celebrate Hamas terrorists
By Chuck Warren
Last week, Governor Ron DeSantis promised to cancel the visas of foreign students who celebrate terrorists on U.S. college campuses. Expectedly, it drew the criticism of people on the left and the libertarian right on the grounds of freedom of speech.
It is amusing to watch the defenders of canceling fellow Americans to find their principles only for non-citizens who advocate for terror. On the left, the Washington Post reported on it, adding that “experts say” that “it violates free speech.” The Bulwark called it authoritarian. John Kirby, the national security spokesperson at the White House, also defended the right to free expression.
The libertarians, to their credit, are consistent in their advocacy. Like they have for everyone else in the past, they are again defending freedom of speech in this instance. In a news report, Reason argued that everybody in the United States is entitled to freedom of speech. A libertarian activist in The Daily Beast wrote that “unconstitutional, wrong, and short-sighted for the government to start targeting people for deportation because they say offensive and vile things.”
These arguments are all wrong. First, American citizens are fully entitled to Constitutional rights, but non-citizens are not. The U.S. government can—and does—decide what rights it extends to foreigners. The most obvious is voting, a Constitutional right foreign citizens are not entitled to. Another is gun ownership, which non-citizens are generally barred from with certain legal exceptions. Another is right to work. While Americans are Constitutionally entitled to work in America, foreigners need to apply for this privilege. Freedom of speech is all the same. The U.S. government can decide that it wishes to regulate First Amendment rights.
In fact, the U.S. government has already decided this. In 1958, the Supreme Court decided that freedom of association was a form of freedom of speech and therefore a First Amendment right. Yet, six years before that, Congress had banned granting visas to members of communist organizations, a law that remains on the books. The PATRIOT Act of 2001 bars granting visa to members of terrorist organizations. These two laws violate freedom of association; therefore, they violate freedom of speech, but the U.S. government is Constitutionally entitled to them because its obligations to U.S. citizens and foreigners are not the same.
Foreigners are made aware of this before arriving at the United States. Before being granted entry, they must fill out a questionnaire. Among those questions is, “Have you ever or do you intend to provide financial assistance or other support to terrorists or terrorist organizations?” To be allowed in the United States, you must answer no. And note that this is not just a matter of past record. It asks, “do you intend to” which concerns future activities.
There is a legal question, what “other support” here means. Does moral, academic, and political support count? One can easily answer with a yes. If moral, academic, and political support in form of organizing was useless for terrorists’ cause, then the supporters would not engage in it, and the terrorists would not so eagerly welcome it. Both the pro-Hamas protesters and Hamas know that this helps Hamas, and that’s why they do it.
Stripping those who help the terrorists of their visas does not violate the Constitution. It keeps America and its allies, Israel in this case, safe. In fact, there is a legal basis for this. Lying on your visa application merits deportation, and supporting terrorists in the United States exposes that they lied on their applications.
The truth is that we have enough problems at home, and we have enough native-born Americans who oppose freedom. We should encourage legal immigration among those who seek to come here to help us make our country better. But we absolutely do not need people who are making things worse. As DeSantis put it, nobody’s entitled to a visa.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Chuck Warren only and not his co-host Sam Stone or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.