Remember Mahmoud Khalil? The Columbia University grad student who became the poster boy for the anti-Israel protest movement? The guy who helped organize campus occupations and got himself arrested when the Trump administration started cracking down on noncitizens who think “Death to Israel” is a protected form of academic discourse?

Yeah, well, the Board of Immigration Appeals just denied his appeal and issued a final order of removal. Pack your bags, Mahmoud.

Khalil was born in Syria to a Palestinian family and holds Algerian citizenship through — and this is a nice detail — “a distant relative.” He’s been living in the United States on a green card while attending Columbia, where he apparently spent more time organizing protests than attending classes. He was the first person publicly arrested during the federal crackdown on foreign nationals who decided that being a guest in this country was the perfect opportunity to scream about destroying one of our closest allies.

His response to losing the appeal? He said he was “not surprised” and called the ruling “biased and politically motivated.” He then added: “The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine.”

Oh, is THAT all? Just a little light genocide-accusing while you’re here on our hospitality? Nothing to see here, folks. Just a noncitizen using his position at an elite American university to organize movements against a U.S. ally, and then acting shocked — SHOCKED — when the immigration system says maybe this arrangement isn’t working out.

The ACLU, naturally, is throwing a fit. They released a statement calling the Board of Immigration Appeals decision another example of the Trump administration “weaponizing immigration enforcement to silence political speech.” Because in ACLU-land, a foreign national organizing anti-American protests on American soil is the same thing as free speech. These people would give a microphone to anyone who hates this country and then sue you for unplugging it.

Now, Khalil’s lawyers say the ruling doesn’t change much practically — he’s got a separate case winding through the federal courts and they claim he can’t be detained or deported while that plays out. They’re planning to appeal to the Fifth Circuit. So this will drag on for a while, as these things always do.

But here’s what actually matters: the Board of Immigration Appeals — the actual legal body tasked with these decisions — looked at his case and said no. Not “maybe.” Not “let’s revisit this in six months.” No. Final order of removal. That’s the system working exactly how it’s supposed to work.

Khalil also claims he could be “targeted, and even killed” if he’s deported. To Algeria. The country where he holds citizenship. Through a distant relative. A country that is not at war and has a functioning government. But sure, he’d be in mortal danger there — presumably from people who might disagree with his politics, which is apparently only acceptable when it happens to conservatives on American college campuses.

The broader point here is simple. We spent years watching foreign students at elite universities organize movements that openly called for the destruction of Israel, harassed Jewish students, occupied buildings, and turned campuses into war zones. And for years, nobody did anything about it because the administrative class at these schools was either sympathetic or terrified of being called Islamophobic.

Trump’s DOJ said enough. They started enforcing the laws that were already on the books. And now the first domino has officially fallen.

Mahmoud Khalil got a world-class education at an American university, used it to organize against American interests, lost his legal appeal, and is now one step closer to the departure gate. We wish him safe travels and a productive career in Algeria.