Secretary of State Marco Rubio is abusing a provision of an old law to detain and try to deport people that the Trump administration doesn’t like. It’s wrong and it’s likely unconstitutional.

Passed by a Republican Congress over the veto of Harry Truman, the Red Scare-era Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 says: “An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.”

The targets back then were suspected Communists. Now they are anyone that the White House doesn’t want here.

We note that the law also says that “An alien shall not be excludable or subject to restrictions or conditions on entry into the United States because of the alien’s past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations, if such beliefs, statements, or associations would be lawful within the United States,” meaning First Amendment free speech protections apply, but the statute continues: “unless the Secretary of State personally determines that the alien’s admission would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest.”

So out goes Colombian-born journalist Franklin Humberto Coral Garrido, now detained and accused of using “U.S. platforms to conduct politically motivated disinformation campaigns.”

In this case, Rubio seems to have coordinated with Colombian President-elect Abelardo De La Espriella, who posted that there was good news coming for “patriotic Colombians abroad” in the run-up to Coral Garrido’s arrest.

The latter had criticized De La Espriella, who is a Trump-aligned rightist who has promised to “disembowel the left” and attempted to sue dozens of journalists. In other words, a perfect MAGA ally for whom the administration can do favors by violating the Constitution.

This was once a country where people from around the world could come and feel free to express their political opinions away from the clutches of demagogues abroad. No longer; Coral Garrido is now locked in detention as a result. Even if he is released, the message has been sent loud and clear that engaging in “political activity,” as Rubio himself put it, is an offense worthy of being detained.

Last year it was a shocking national scandal when the administration directed former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder, detained over his political activism in protesting against Israel. That the secretary of state now has personally signed a memo ordering a journalist detained has barely made headlines, apparently at the behest of or at least in coordination with a foreign leader.

Yet each and every one of these visa cancellations or detentions is a violation of the First Amendment right to free expression, which administration officials aren’t even trying to hide. It will continue happening until there are consequences, whether from Congress or judges imposing additional sanctions.

This is what the administration has hoped for with its constant tire-kicking of our constitutional freedoms and civil liberties: that it just becomes background noise for us, competing for attention with endless other scandals and social media and everything else demanding our focus in this digital world. We can’t allow it to happen. On this, the 250th year of the world’s oldest democracy, we have to remember that what really makes America is our striving towards the ideals enshrined in the Constitution, which are globally far less common than we’d hope.

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