Mahmoud Khalil's Arrest

Speaking as someone who has been raided without a warrant and jailed for pissing off a politician while tracking COVID-19, I’m outraged at the kidnapping of Mahmoud Khalil by ICE.

And you should be, too.

Khalil is a Syrian-American graduate of Columbia University who helped organize protests against the genocide of Palestinian’s in Gaza last year.

A legal permanent resident of the United States, ICE has no authority to arrest Khalil. Khalil broke no laws, and even if he had, those crimes would be prosecuted by the jurisdiction in which they were committed, not by ICE.

Columbia University has engaged in physical and psychological warfare against its own students for nearly 18 months, allowing (and even encouraging) student protestors to be attacked, beaten and arrested for protesting the ongoing genocide and occupation in Gaza by Israeli forces.

Other universities have done the same — but none to the degree Columbia has now become synonymous with.

ICE kidnapped a legal resident in the middle of the night, then transported him to one of the worst detention facilities in the country — Jena, Louisiana.

If you are not outraged, you are part of the problem.