We Are All Mahmoud Kahlil
Or we will be in short order.
Such is the refrain of Pastor Martin Niemoller’s iconic Holocaust poem, “First They Came”.
Mahmoud Khalil is a name that should be on the tip of the tongues of all Americans who value the sacrosanct first amendment. If you aren’t yet familiar with him, be prepared to be outraged by the time you finish reading, because this Columbia University graduate student is only the first victim of the Trump regime’s evisceration of Americans’ right to peaceably assembly and redress our grievances.
There will be more.
We are all Mahmoud Kahlil, or we will be in short order.
Mahmoud Khalil is a Syrian-born Palestinian activist who helped lead non-violent student protests last year at Columbia University against the Israeli genocide of Gazans. He is a legal U.S. resident with a green card and is not affiliated with any terrorist organization, like Hamas. His wife, eight-months’ pregnant, is an American citizen.
By dint of his being a student negotiator for protests--which occurred on other campuses in addition to Columbia —he is the target of Columbia’s new disciplinary body concentrating on harassment and discrimination complaints.
No wonder he is also now in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana — notorious for severe medical neglect, physical, and sexual abuse--after ICE agents forced their way into Khalil’s apartment on March 8, without a judicial warrant, claiming his green card and student visa had been “revoked,” and they were there to deport him. The only reason he hasn’t been yet is due to a federal judge’s order to keep Khalil in the United States while the constitutionality surrounding his arrest and detention are litigated.
https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1898908955675357314
As reported in The Nation:
On March 7, the day before Khalil’s arrest, the [Trump] administration pulled $400 million in grant funding to Columbia because of the university’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” by which it means any opposition to Israel.
Former US attorney, and current law prof and MSNBC/NBC legal analyst, Joyce Vance, in her piece aptly titled, “First They Came For…”, explained:
Khalil has not been charged with any crimes, the most frequent reason a green card is revoked. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security says his custody is a result of Trump’s executive orders that prohibit anti-Semitism. Khalil was involved in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia. It is not known if they plan to bring charges now.
Donna Lieberman, one of Khalil’s attorneys, told CNN:
This is a targeted, retaliatory and extreme attack on the right of free expression. They’re not claiming he did anything illegal. They just don’t like what he has said. It’s an attempt to bully students, faculty and the rest of us…This move to quell free speech is absolutely terrifying.
Khalil is only a warning to us all, as the convicted felon/illegitimate occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is screaming out loud for all hear.
Joyce Vance continued:
Let’s be clear about what this isn’t. This is not an attempt to protect Jewish Americans from antisemitism. That is a complicated problem that requires education and a long-term commitment. If they were actually concerned about it, Trump’s white supremacist, pro-Nazi supporters, including the guy who threw a couple of Nazi salutes recently would meet a similar fate. This is about using anti-Semitism to justify unconstitutional actions, and no one, least of all the Jewish community, benefits when a dictator begins to seize people who have not been charged with any crime.
https://x.com/prem_thakker/status/1900341950865133986
Columbia University is, sadly, capitulating, like so many media and business organizations.
On Thursday, Columbia announced it would be complying with a fiat from the White House by issuing “multi-year suspension, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions” in response to the Hamilton Hall protest.
https://x.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1900336758589358185
Columbia also expelled and fired Grant Miner, Student Workers of Columbia (SWC) union president, one day before contract negotiations with the university were supposed to begin.
SWC stated:
The shocking move is part of a wave of crackdowns on free speech against students and workers who have spoken out and protested for peace and against the war on Gaza. It is no accident that this comes days after the federal government froze Columbia’s funding, and threatened to pull funding from 60 other universities across the country.
But not everyone is so pusillanimous.
Last week, over 300 Jewish Voice for Peace protesters poured into Trump Tower on NYC’s 5th Ave. wearing red shirts reading “Not in Our Name,” demanding Mahmoud Khalil’s immediate release. About 100 protesters were arrested and face trespassing, obstruction, and resisting arrest charges.
On the other side, though, are the enablers.
Right-wing anti-Palestinian group Betar US, an extremist group the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has designated as such, claimed credit from Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and boasts a “deportation list” of individuals it claims “terrorize America” are in the country on US visas and have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
Make no mistake, Mahmoud Khalil will not be the last; he is merely a trial balloon.
If the fascism spewing out of the illegitimate felon’s administration is dismissed and/or explained away, it will worsen. It will expand.
If they can detain and possibly deport peaceful activists exercising their/our right to free speech without government reprisal, they will find pretexts to detain and possibly deport others protesting the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.
They can and will go after those assembling all over the country protesting the scorched-earth campaign to turn this country into Russia compliments of the ersatz president, Elon Musk, and his illegitimate Putin puppet pretending to be president.
They can and will go after educators standing up for LGBTQ+ students.
They are already going after members of the LGBTQ+ community.
They can and will go after teachers accused of teaching a “woke agenda”.
They can and will go after members of the media who refuse to bend the knee to propaganda. This already started in a big way two weeks ago.
They can and will go after those not sufficiently “Christian” or “American”.
Again, quoting Joyce Vance:
If we are willing to turn a blind eye when other people are at risk, we lose. If we cede our democracy to the Trump administration out of fear — fear that what they are doing to other people, they might do it to us — we lose. There is no reason to believe they will stop; they will be emboldened. For people who believe they have the ability to sit it out without being affected personally, just how much are they willing to watch happen to others while they continue on with their own lives? Freedom is worth the hard work it’s going to take to keep it. We have to all pull together. This is one of those moments.
“Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”