On March 8th, ICE agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student who played an important role in the campus protests against Israel’s devastating war in Gaza that has killed at least 61,000 people, most of them women and children.
Khalil was taken into custody without a warrant, apparently under orders from Marco Rubio’s State Department to revoke Khalil’s student visa and permanent green card for his activism. The agents even threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, who is eight months pregnant and an American citizen.
Free Mahmoud Khalil!
To make this deeply disturbing story of authoritarian overreach even worse, Khalil was disappeared for nearly a day. His wife was told he was being detained in New Jersey, but when she tried to visit, she learned he wasn’t there. He has since surfaced in a Louisiana ICE detention center.
“ICE dragged off a U.S. Permanent Resident from the home he shares with his pregnant wife without showing a warrant, giving a reason for his arrest or informing her where he is being held. This is absolute lawlessness reminiscent of some of the darkest chapters of modern history,” wrote Center for International Policy vice-president Dylan Williams on Twitter.
This is a terrifying escalation of the Trump administration’s war on not just free speech but the most basic rights afforded to American citizens and permanent residents. Mahmoud Khalil MUST be released ASAP.
Free the human rights activist kidnapped by Trump’s goons without a warrant!
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