First They Came For…

Mahmoud Khalil is a household name at the moment. A recent graduate of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, he is a permanent resident of the United States, a green card holder, with an American citizen wife who is eight months pregnant.

Khalil was detained Saturday by federal immigration agents in New York. They came to his door, originally, according to reporting, telling him his student visa was being revoked. When advised he was a green card holder, agents reportedly said that was being revoked too. He is being held in an immigration facility in Louisiana.

A federal judge in New York has ordered the government to keep Khalil in the United States and refrain from deportation until it can resolve the issues in front of it. Protests against his arrest have sprung up.

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.

That’s a very thin veneer. Executive orders do not alter constitutional rights.

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” Donald Trump posted on social media. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.” If there is evidence protestors have committed crimes, they can be charged and have their day in court.

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. This is the classic lament of Pastor Martin Niemöller over what happened in Nazi Germany:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Public discourse in America around the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and Israel’s response has been deeply divisive. Rather than trying to heal those wounds, the Trump administration is seizing upon them to divide us further. Whatever you think of Khalil’s views, we tolerate his arrest at our own peril. We should oppose his detention because it’s wrong, without regard to the content of his speech. We should oppose it because it is one more step towards taking away more people’s First Amendment rights. Perhaps your Christian beliefs run afoul of Christian nationalist designations of some sects as heterodox—maybe you’re suddenly the “wrong kind” of Protestant. Or could it be that this week’s attack is against labor unionists, LGBTQ people, or pro-democracy advocates? Once you accept the arrest of a person for no reason other than their speech, we are all in danger.

Khalil’s detention means we are just a hop, skip, and jump away from political persecutions. It’s a steep, slippery slope from here to “speak out against Trump and go to jail.” Being different, unpopular, or “other” will get you removed from your home in this new world.

Trump’s efforts to strip people of their rights, whether they are people we align with and agree with or not, are a danger to democracy. This is the moment where we must all stand up for what we believe in. 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.

We’re in this together,

Joyce