The Unconstitutional Abduction & Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil by the United States Government
Connecting the dots on Trump, Biden, anti-BDS initiatives, and the current crackdown against Palestinian activism on U.S. campuses.
On March 8, recent Columbia grad student and student activist Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by DHS and ICE agents at his home in Columbia University’s graduate housing. The agents informed Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, that his green card had been revoked by an order of the President of the United States. Khalil was abducted by these agents of the state without a warrant, transferred to New Jersey, and then transferred to an ICE facility in Louisiana where he is currently detained. Khalil’s family did not hear from him until he called them from Louisiana. Khalil’s wife issued a statement about the night of the arrest two days ago.
He had broken no laws. Why is this happening to Khalil?
It is happening because the Trump administration is cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests and activism by attacking freedom of speech and criticism against the state of Israel under the guise of combatting antisemitism on university campuses across America. Khalil is the Trump administration’s first target and his case is an example designed to chill dissent and silence activists on campuses across the country.
Following Khalil’s arrest, Trump’s Department of Education sent a letter to 60 universities and colleges warning of “potential enforcement actions” if they failed to protect the civil rights of Jewish students.
In a Presidential administration that includes criticism of the state of Israel within its definition of antisemitism, this warning is clearly designed to chill Palestinian advocacy and activism on college campuses throughout America under the guise of protecting Jewish students.
And to be clear, this did not start with Trump; this began under the Biden administration. It began as a democratic presidential administration funded and armed a genocide in 2023-2024 while simultaneously trying to suppress dissent against their actions. The Biden administration laid the groundwork for the escalation and fascist actions that the Trump administration is undertaking now.
There are many who aided and abetted the foundational actions for gutting our civil liberties over silencing any and all criticism of Israel: both opportunistic and Zionist elected officials, institutions, and organizations who have been demonizing Palestinian advocates on campuses across the United States for the last 18 months since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began.
How We Got Here
Universities have always been a hot bed of activism. Whether it was protesting for civil rights, against the Vietnam war, against apartheid South Africa, or against the Iraq War, college students have been consistent in thinking freely and standing against injustice. And because these movements have been successful at creating change on similar injustices in the past, universities and college campuses are ground zero for the crackdown against Palestinian advocacy because it is viewed as a massive threat to the status quo of the Israeli state as it militarily occupies Palestinian lands, actively practices apartheid, and has now enacted a nearly 18 month long genocide.
In any other state’s case, sanctions and divestment would be tools of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy to pressure change to uphold international law and human rights. But not in the case of Israel…
When it comes to Israel, carve outs undermining the rights of Americans did not start in 2023 with the genocide in Gaza, but they took hold with fights over the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses.
While the right to boycott is legally considered protected speech under the First Amendment, attempts to outlaw and criminalize BDS initiatives began on campuses across the U.S., and then began being codified into law throughout states across the country. At present, 38 out of 50 states now have anti-BDS laws.
The latest fight against injustice, which has culminated with Khalil’s illegal arrest and detention, has included recent student expulsions from both Barnard and Columbia University over participation in anti-genocide encampments. And multiple university administrators have been forced out of their jobs thanks to coordinated pressure campaigns by elected officials and Zionist organizations (examples: Claudine Gay at Harvard University, Elizabeth Magill at the University of Pennsylvania, and Mike Lee at Sonoma State).
But the universities are not innocent in how this situation has devolved or how they have put their own students at risk rather than fighting for them.
For example, Columbia University failed to protect Mahmoud Khalil: he had emailed the University’s administration asking them for protection regarding a doxxing campaign against him orchestrated by suspended Columbia lecturer and Israel activist Shai Davidai just one day before his abduction.
Rather than fighting for justice and their students, our institutions of higher education will go as far as to platform literal war criminals due to pressure and incentives from donors. And donors end up winning over students every single time.
Khalil’s arrest and attempted deportation are an attempt to scare anyone who criticizes the state of Israel; whether it is for genocide, apartheid or the billions in U.S. tax dollars sent to the country every year. Our lawmakers want to issue blank checks based on the money they get from the Israel Lobby; they don’t want us complicating their opportunistic decision making process of how they spend our hard earned tax dollars.
Khalil’s arrest is a signal meant to both chill dissent, and test the response to inform Trump’s mass deportation plans. His arrest symbolizes that the rights of students across America - their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly - are under attack by an increasingly authoritarian state.
Today, the target is a permanent resident of the United States; tomorrow these attacks will be on U.S. citizens. Today, the targets are colleges and college students; tomorrow it will be you and me.
This is the beginning of a very dark era and we need to fight against it with everything we have got.
Support Mahmoud Khalil (Khalil in his own words) by taking action now:
Send a letter to your Congressmember to stand for the civil liberties of Khalil and all Americans.
Send a letter to your Congressmember to protect all student activists.
Donate to support Mahmoud Khalil’s legal defense and related costs.
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