I’m not only grateful for my move to Washington, but also the distraction from the horrors being inflicted upon us by the authoritarians. However, I can’t keep my head down forever and today want to share an important read from Kelly Hayes: Mahmoud Khalil and the Repression That Was, Is, and Will Be.

Mahmoud Khalil is a Columbia University student, Palestinian activist, and permanent resident of the U.S. with a Green card who was abducted by ICE a week ago in retaliation for pro-Palestinian activities. The government agents removed Khalil from his housing against the protestations of Khalil’s wife who is eight months pregnant with their first child.

This is incredibly dangerous and ominous territory. And what makes it even worse is that there’s not an opposition party in this moment. The Democrats have made it clear via their support for genocide and the brutalization of students who speak out against that genocide that they will not magically become better people who will fight for civil liberties for all.

As Palestinian activist and University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi recently told me, “The abduction of Mahmoud Khalil represents a major escalation in the wars against political freedom, higher education and Palestine activism that this administration is waging.” Abdelhadi noted that these wars are intertwined. “Palestine solidarity activists have faced repression and criminalization for decades, and these escalated to unprecedented levels with the assault on Gaza that began in October 2023.” Abdelhadi noted that participants in the Palestine solidarity movement have long warned that the repression being waged against them was setting the stage for greater escalations. “We warned, over and over, that the repression we were facing was setting a dangerous precedent,” she said. “Democrats and college administrators didn’t listen.” 

Abdelhadi says that by treating Palestinians and their allies as “fair game for repression,” Democratic officials and college administrators “opened the door for the far right to strip away constitutional protections from everyone.” 

“Trump is waltzing through the door that liberals opened for him, and we are all suffering for it,” Abdelhadi said. “It is clear this administration is testing what we are willing to tolerate, what we are willing to sit through. If Mahmoud Khalil has no rights, none of us do.”

We cannot afford to look the other way, to tell ourselves this is an isolated case. They are coming for all of us.

They came for Mahmoud Khalil in the night, and they will come for us, too. They will come with immigration raids. They will come for us with AI searches, scraping our data, and compiling massive lists of political targets. They will come with RICO charges, as they have for Cop City protesters in Atlanta. They will come with bizarre allegations of “fraud.” They will accuse us of supporting and abetting terrorism. They will terrorize us, criminalize us, and attempt to silence us. Now is the time to speak out and to “flood the zone,” as Scot Nakagawa writes. 

As protests and support efforts for Khalil continue, we should all uplift demands for his freedom.

Do what you can, where you can.

Please read and share Mahmoud Khalil and the Repression That Was, Is, and Will Be.