Imagine deportation: When Nixon tried to pull a Trump on John Lennon

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In trying to deport a Palestinian anti-war activist, Mahmoud Khalil, Donald Trump follows in the footsteps of another former Republican president. Richard Nixon tried to deport Beatlesmember John Lennon in 1972.

Trump, during an October 2023 campaign stop in Iowa, pledged to "revoke the student visas of radical, anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners at our colleges and universities" and "send them straight back home." Khalil, the holder of a green card, which grants lawful permanent resident status, was a Columbia University graduate who led pro-Palestine protests at the school last year.

Trump's use of government agencies to suppress anti-war protesters echoes that of Nixon, whose administration used the FBI and CIA to surveil, infiltrate and harass anti-Vietnam war peace groups. The Nixon administration also called on the Internal Revenue Service to audit the president's critics.

https://www.salon.com/2025/03/22/imagine-deportation-when-nixon-tried-to-pull-a-on-john-lennon/

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1. The threat of deportation was effective

to silence Lennon.