"THEY CAN'T DO THAT!" (NARRATOR: THEY ALREADY DID)
A Palestinian activist with a Green Card was just moved to a detention facility in Louisiana, 1300 miles from his pregnant American wife. This is fascism.
SO HERE WE ARE AGAIN. Another day, another erosion of human rights that has everyone clutching their well-worn copies of the Constitution while actual people suffer. How many times do we need to see this play out before we change our approach?
Let’s talk about what’s happening to Mahmoud Khalil, pictured above. A Palestinian graduate student and Green Card holder. Married to a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant. Arrested in his university-owned residence near Columbia’s campus by ICE agents who claimed they were revoking his immigration status. His crime? Being a visible advocate for Palestinian rights during campus protests.
And now? No one knows for sure where he is. According to ICE’s online records, Khalil has been moved to a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana — 1300 miles from his pregnant wife and legal representation. His attorney initially said ICE agents claimed he was being transferred to a facility in New Jersey, but when his wife tried to visit on Sunday, he wasn’t there. The government shuffled him across the country with no warning or explanation.
Hey y’all, there are terms for governments that make their critics disappear.
Authoritarian.
Dictatorships.
Fascist.
Not approaching fascist.
Not fascist-adjacent.
Not fascist-curious.
Fascist.
“But they can’t do this! Green Cards can’t be revoked without due process! Free speech is constitutionally protected! This is illegal!” — Us.
“Yeah, okay sure. And also we’re taking Mahmoud.” — Them.
Guys, I’m not saying our outrage isn’t warranted. It is. But I am saying our outrage isn’t helping Mahmoud. Or the countless other immigrants who’ve been rounded up while Americans stood around debating the finer points of constitutional law as if fascists give a flying fuck about legal arguments.
Because, again, that’s what this is — fascism.
The real deal. The kind where government agencies snatch a legal resident from his home for political speech, threaten his pregnant wife, and then shuffle him around the detention system so his lawyers can’t find him.
The Department of Homeland Security even admitted it in their statement, saying Khalil was arrested “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism” because he allegedly “led activities aligned to Hamas”.
On Fox News, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan falsely claimed Khalil had “violated the terms of his visa by locking down buildings and destroying property” — assertions contradicted by Columbia’s own records, which show Khalil was not among those who occupied buildings. But who needs facts when you have propaganda networks to spread your message?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also made their intentions crystal clear, posting on social media: “We will be revoking the visas and/or Green Cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
No due process. No judicial review. Just labeling people as Hamas supporters and stripping their rights away. Just accusations that essentially translate to *he protested a genocide we support*.
This is the imperial boomerang at work. The tactics we tolerate against others eventually get used against us. The surveillance methods developed for “counterterrorism” abroad become the tools to monitor domestic dissidents. The military equipment tested in war zones gets handed to local police. The dehumanization of foreigners becomes the justification for stripping rights from citizens.
When we look the other way as imperialism flourishes under the party supposedly championing progressive values, why are we surprised when the party that openly embraces white supremacy grabs those exact same tools and uses them with even greater enthusiasm?
Israel’s influence over U.S. politics isn’t just a foreign policy issue — it’s a domestic threat. The same forces on both sides of the aisle that helped get Trump elected are the ones pushing for increased crackdowns on pro-Palestinian voices. The same surveillance tech developed by Israeli companies gets sold to U.S. law enforcement. The same dehumanizing rhetoric used against Palestinians gets repurposed against immigrants and activists here.
And now they’ve come for Mahmoud. And none of us are safe.
Look, I get it. Some folks want to believe the system works. They want to believe that if we sternly point to our constitutional pocket books with enough righteous indignation, the courts will step in and justice will prevail.
*Points even harder*.
Yet while they’re busy pointing, ICE is loading more people into vans. While they’re debating legal strategies, families are being torn apart. While they’re explaining the finer points of the First Amendment, someone else is disappearing into the detention system.
FOLKS.
PLEASE.
Outrage does not work.
Calling our reps does not work.
Raging on social media does not work.
Composing the perfect tweet about due process doesn’t work.
Strategic silence coupled with concrete action works.
Yes, I’ve written about this before. And yes, I’ll keep repeating these tactics again and again because they actually work. And I’m begging you — share this. Email it to your aunt. Screenshot it for your group chat. Read it at dinner. Take my words entirely and claim them as your own. I don’t care about credit. I care about this message reaching as many people as possible before more people disappear. I care about saving actual human beings from a system designed to crush them.
When ICE comes knocking in your neighborhood, you didn’t see anything.
You don’t know anyone.
You work long hours.
You mind your own business.
The less information they have, the harder their job becomes.
No explanations.
No justifications.
No helpful suggestions about who else they might ask.
Just someone who knows how to shut the fuck up.
The Gestapo was effective because ordinary Germans reported on their neighbors. So don’t be that person. Full stop.
But silence alone isn’t enough. We need active, community-based resistance:
Join or create local mutual aid networks that operate outside government control. Food distribution, childcare support, resource sharing — these sustain vulnerable communities when official channels fail them
Support immigrant legal defense funds
Create community alert systems — some neighborhoods have developed text chains to warn about ICE presence in the area
Build relationships with immigrant-owned businesses and offer support when needed — sometimes this might means simply showing up as customers, sometimes it might means providing safe spaces
Support sanctuary movements, whether religious or secular, that protect people at risk of deportation.
None of these depend on government goodwill or constitutional protections. They’re about people protecting people when systems fail. And they’ve worked throughout history — from the Underground Railroad to Danish citizens protecting Jewish neighbors during Nazi occupation to modern sanctuary movements.
Because all I know is the performative outrage isn’t working. The clever signs aren’t working. The constitutional arguments aren’t working. Oh and hey, wouldn’t you know it, but the guns certainly aren’t protecting us from tyranny, despite what 2A enthusiasts promised.
What *is* working is communities quietly, determinedly protecting their own. What *is* working is strategic non-cooperation with unjust systems. What *is* working is building parallel support structures that don’t rely on the same government that’s causing the harm.
The fact that they’ve moved Khalil to Louisiana — as far as possible from his support network, legal representation, and pregnant wife — shows exactly how this system operates. Isolation is a tool of oppression. Community is our defense.
So please, enough with the shock and disbelief. This is happening. It’s been happening. It will continue happening. The question isn’t whether it’s constitutional — the question is what the fuck you’re going to do about it.
Free Mahmoud Khalil.
Free every person unjustly detained.
And for fuck’s sake, start building the community networks we’ll all need to survive what’s coming.
Not next month. Not after the next outrage. Today.
It is truly horrific what they did to him and his family. I agree this must be shared we have to keep navigating life without giving them more money.
Freedom of speech and freedom to protest are clearly gone
meanwhile a former Israeli PM invited to Harvard openly jokes about giving exploding pagers to protesters... https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/3/10/naftali-bennett-hbs-talk/