abolitionmedia<p><strong>My Name is Mahmoud Khalil and I Am a Political Prisoner</strong></p><p></p> <p> </p> <p><span>My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in </span><span>Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices </span><span>underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.</span></p><p><span>Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t the </span><span>Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his </span><span>family an ocean away. It isn’t the <span class="">21</span>-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, </span><span>only to be deported without so much as a hearing.</span></p><p><span>Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities.</span></p><p><span>On March <span class="">8</span>, I was taken by DHS agents who refused to provide a warrant, and accosted my wife and me </span><span>as we returned from dinner. By now, the footage of that night has been made public. Before I knew what </span><span>was happening, agents handcuffed and forced me into an unmarked car. At that moment, my only concern </span><span>was for Noor’s safety. I had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her </span><span>for not leaving my side. DHS would not tell me anything for hours — I did not know the cause of my </span><span>arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation. At <span class="">26</span> Federal Plaza, I slept on the cold floor. In the early </span><span>morning hours, agents transported me to another facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, I slept on the </span><span>ground and was refused a blanket despite my request.</span></p><p><span>My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free </span><span>Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night. With January’s </span><span>ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced </span><span>to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle </span><span>for their complete freedom.</span></p> Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing campaigns—based on racism and disinformation—to go unchecked. <p><span>I was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria to a family which has been displaced from their land </span><span>since the <span class="">1948</span> Nakba. I spent my youth in proximity to yet distant from my homeland. But being </span><span>Palestinian is an experience that transcends borders. I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel’s use </span><span>of administrative detention — imprisonment without trial or charge — to strip Palestinians of their rights. </span><span>I think of our friend Omar Khatib, who was incarcerated without charge or trial by Israel as he returned </span><span>home from travel. I think of Gaza hospital director and pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who was </span><span>taken captive by the Israeli military on December <span class="">27</span> and remains in an Israeli torture camp today. For </span><span>Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace.</span></p><p><span>I have always believed that my duty is not only to liberate myself from the oppressor, but also to liberate </span><span>my oppressors from their hatred and fear. My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism </span><span>that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past <span class="">16</span> months as the U.S. has </span><span>continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention. For </span><span>decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to </span><span>violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being </span><span>targeted.</span></p><p><span>While I await legal decisions that hold the futures of my wife and child in the balance, those who enabled </span><span>my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University. Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean </span><span>Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining </span><span>pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing — based on racism and disinformation—</span><span>to go unchecked.</span></p> Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child. <p><span>Columbia targeted me for my activism, creating a new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due </span><span>process and silence students criticizing Israel. Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by disclosing </span><span>student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump administration’s latest threats. My arrest, the </span><span>expulsion or suspension of at least <span class="">22</span> Columbia students — some stripped of their B.A. degrees just </span><span>weeks before graduation — and the expulsion of SWC President Grant Miner on the eve of contract </span><span>negotiations, are clear examples.</span></p><p><span>If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion </span><span>toward Palestinian liberation. Students have long been at the forefront of change — leading the charge </span><span>against the Vietnam War, standing on the frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement, and driving the struggle </span><span>against apartheid in South Africa. Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who </span><span>steer us toward truth and justice.</span></p><p><span>The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent. Visa-holders, </span><span>green-card carriers, and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs. In the weeks ahead, </span><span>students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake </span><span>are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.</span></p><p><span>Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to </span><span>witness the birth of my first-born child.</span></p> <p><a href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=17689" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=</span><span class="invisible">17689</span></a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/columbia-university/" target="_blank">#columbiaUniversity</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/mahmoud/" target="_blank">#mahmoud</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/north-america/" target="_blank">#northAmerica</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/political-prisoners/" target="_blank">#PoliticalPrisoners</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/tag/repression/" target="_blank">#repression</a></p>