On March 8th, 2025, Mahmoud Khalil was abducted from his home by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) despite having a green card and not being charged with any crime whatsoever. He is an active protester and negotiator at student protests in his university, Columbia University. Trump is clearly fulfilling his promise to target those who are anti-American but of course this is also an issue nurtured by democrats. The Anti-Palestinian racism we have witnessed for the past year and a half did not start with the Trump administration. It is embedded into the US, a country built on imperialism, slavery, and white supremacy. All of the terrorists protesting the Palestinian genocide, calling for the empire to fall are all anti-American. Knowing the history of this country and the plans for its future, why would you not be anti-American?
Student Protests
Since October the 7th, 2023, protests sparked all over the world calling for a free Palestine. Student protests, specifically here in the US, shook the world, bringing back memories of our very own American history during the Vietnam War. Even then, students always seem to be on the right side of history. I don’t make the rules. New York City’s very own Ivy League, Columbia University, was on fire with student encampments. Columbias Hamilton Hall is now known as Hinds Hall after the original name was covered with a massive canvas sheet reading ”Hinds Hall”, the building being covered in Palestinian flags and art, the hall being surrounded by students in keffiyehs and masks, and having a window be broken. Spoiler alert, the window was the big headline.
After Khalil’s kidnapping, the conversation about Universities and schools protecting their students from ICE spread quick. This is not the first time a school has failed to protect its students from ICE (and it sure won’t be the last). We witnessed a teacher call ICE on a high school student in Texas only a month ago. Now a university student can be taken from his home for no reason at all and their school won’t even try to help. This is what we have allowed to be normal. Seeing people disappear at the hands of white supremacy is the norm now. It shouldn’t be surprising though considering how Universities reacted to student protests.
Since October 2023, universities made it clear that student safety was never a concern. Schools called police onto their campuses to assault and arrest their students and faculty by using physical force and tear gas. Drones flew high and police on the ground held cameras to dox anyone they could. Mind you, this all happened under the Biden administration. If this brutality wasn’t normalized then, it wouldn’t be normalized now. Biden’s actions were merely stepping stones for Trump’s reign. All this talk about compensation cash for students who were emotionally harmed by protests, because literally nobody was physically harmed except for the protesters by police brutality, is nothing more than white fragility and protecting a genocidal narrative. Student protesters have been threatened, suspended, arrested, attacked, killed, and now facing possible deportation even for those with the proper papers. If your own school won’t protect you and in fact puts you in danger, who do you turn to? Will you stand with the students, or the oppressors trying to silence the truth?
Mahmoud Khalil
Mahmoud Khalil, a soon to be father, friend of many, protester and negotiator was abducted from his home with no charges against him. This so called “terrorist sympathizer” is of Palestinian and Syrian origin, holding Algerian citizenship. Regardless, he has a green card, making him a lawful resident if you want to look at the legality of things. He had been targeted before sure, but of course never like this. What happened to him took the media by storm. Liberals were quick to make this discussion about the right to free speech, once again diverting attention from the real issue of Islamophobia and blatant racism against black and brown people. It’s the Liberal special! Khalil’s story should scare all of us but should also inspire us to continue to strive for the collapse of the empire.
Palestine
This situation is not one of the First Amendment right to free speech nor our constitution written by slave owners. It is not one questioning the freedom of those in the Land of the Free nor the “democracy” of this country. None of these things have ever truly existed in the US. This situation is one of the Palestinian peoples. It is about their history and freedom struggle that still rages on. What is happening in Palestine and US right now should make you feel sorrowful, frustrated, and angry not vindicated you sick liberals. What is happening to Khalil is a reminder of what kind of system we live under. We can only learn from Palestine and our future generations will learn from us. Set an example and advocate for the people to be free. Call for Mahmoud Khalil to be free.