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immigration detention
Mahmoud Khalil Is Not a Threat; the Trump Administration Is
The arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil is part of the Trump administration’s larger project of creating and sustaining the illusion of endless enemies to distract from its oligarchic agenda.
Mar 10, 2025
The evening of the 8th of March, which coincides with the Holy month of Ramadan celebrated by almost 2 billion Muslims worldwide, took an expected turn for Mahmoud Khalil and his wife. Khalil just returned home from iftar—the evening meal Muslims eat to break their day-long fasting during Ramadan. His wife was eight months pregnant. The couple, perhaps, were preparing for the upcoming delivery of the baby and welcoming the new member of the family. Perhaps, they were getting ready to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, one of the two major religious festivals Muslims celebrate at the end of Ramadan.
What was likely not foreseen at all by this family was a raid, arrest, and detention by ICE. Mahmoud, a recent graduate of Columbia University and leading Palestinian solidarity organizer on campus, recently received his green card. A green card is the Permanent Resident Card that allows a person to live and work in the United States permanently. Mahmoud’s wife is a U.S. citizen. If all went well, Mahmoud could have applied for his U.S. citizenship after three to five years, subject to some terms and conditions. Because of being a legal permanent resident—the prior step to receiving U.S. citizenship through naturalization, ICE detention most likely was the last thing on Mahmoud’s mind.
I would argue that we are currently living in a state of exception. Since the Trump administration has assumed power, most of the welfare- and social justice-oriented laws and policies that were historically designed to protect and nurture our humans, environments, and the most vulnerable ones are being gradually replaced by extreme right-wing, hateful, and anti-all-kinds-of-minoritized-communities rules and regulations. To date, a total of 83 executive orders have been signed by President Donald J. Trump, and a significant portion of these orders are aimed at destroying environmental protections, abolishing social security, and cracking down against various marginalized and minoritized communities. If you are not a rich, white, Christian, U.S. citizen, cis-man, you are very likely to be impacted by a good number of these executive orders.
The goal is to remind us that we will be the next if we speak up and challenge oppressive systems.
A notable feature of most of these executive orders is that they appropriate the language of social justice. For example, the executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” is nothing about defending women’s rights but everything about erasing trans- and nonbinary identities and experiences. If President Trump really cared about women’s rights, perhaps he would have allowed federal funding for elective abortion in government programs instead of reinstating the Hyde Amendment. Similarly, the executive order titled “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” disproportionately targets Palestinian solidarity organizers in various institutions of higher education—specifically those who are not U.S. citizens.
Let’s not forget the 2017 white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, where marchers displayed swastikas and chanted slogans like “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil”—a Nazi ideological slogan. Trump was heavily criticized for adopting a “both-sides” narrative in response to the violent demonstrations, as he said, “But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.” A 2021 New Yorker article by David Remnick dives deeper into inquiring, “Is Donald Trump an Antisemite?” The article features a series of interviews that reveal that Trump was more pro-Israel than pro-Jewish. Some of the voices from the Israeli left criticized Trump for portraying American Jews as betrayers who betrayed Israel by voting for Democrats. The Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland described Trump’s views towards Jews as, “...if American Jews don’t support what he says, they are ungrateful and he can question their loyalty. He sees Jews as foreign and supplicants who should be grateful to him.”
Against this background, when the Trump administration’s executive order to “combat Antisemitism” was enacted by the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by arresting and detaining Mahmoud Khalil, we should look beyond the formal accusation of antisemitism outlined by DHS on X: “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” We must dive deeper into asking what exactly the series of xenophobic measures, which include but are not limited to travel bans, visa cancellations, crackdowns on immigrants and refugees, terminating the Spanish-language version of the White House website, and trade and diplomatic wars, along with cuts on government spending and reducing the size and scope of the federal government, aim to achieve.
The U.S. has long been transforming into an oligarchy, which has been alarmingly expedited under the leadership of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. An executive order has assigned the White House more power to monitor and vet independent federal regulation agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission, restricting their ability to regulate cryptocurrency trading or curb the monopoly of multinational tech giants like Meta or Amazon. Billionaire elites are engaged in a partnership with the state, where the state is primarily tasked with serving elite corporate interests. Professor Allison Stanger rightfully says, “When we grant tech leaders direct control over government functions, we’re not just streamlining bureaucracy—we’re fundamentally altering the relationship between private power and public governance.”
When the balance of power between private versus public sectors disappears, and the state is no longer aimed at serving the commoners, the state struggles to maintain its relevancy and seeks legitimacy from the common people. Noam Chomsky argues that one of the most effective ways to establish the state legitimacy is the creation of a culture of fear and the construction of endless enemies, which pits vulnerable communities against each other without drawing any attention to intersecting systems of oppression. Since the Trump administration is not going to serve anyone in this country except for its billionaire allies and rich-white-Christian-cis-male supporter base, it needs to give the rest of the people the impression that it is going to save them from some existentialist threats.
I would argue that the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil is part of the Trump administration’s larger project of creating and sustaining the illusion of endless enemies, which include but are not limited to Arabs; Muslims; Palestinians; immigrants; refugees; Indigenous communities; people of color; women; the “undeserving” poor; and trans, queer, and nonbinary communities. Even though the Trump administration must be well aware of the fact that the oversimplistic conflation of all Palestinian solidarity organizers with “Hamas sympathizers” or the attempt to detain and deport noncitizen peaceful student protestors on the false ground of leading “activities aligned to Hamas” will face serious legal challenges in the court and pushback from progressive and social justice organizations, why does it continue to threaten Palestinian solidarity organizers?
I would say the goal is to leave a chilling effect. The goal is to remind us that we will be the next if we speak up and challenge oppressive systems. The goal is to emphasize that even securing a green card will not ensure that the constitutional right of freedom of speech or freedom of peaceful protest would extend to us. The goal is to push us to a state where we would start censoring ourselves in anticipation of being targeted long before the authoritarian state intervenes and starts penalizing us.
As the Trump administration attempts to restrict abortion and gender-affirming care and erase trans and nonbinary experiences in the name of protecting “life,” protecting “America’s children,” and protecting “family values,” Khalil was torn apart from his eight-month pregnant wife. The pregnant U.S. citizen wife was threatened with being arrested by ICE for trying to help her husband. The eighth month of pregnancy could feel debilitating, yet with a heavily pregnant body, Khalil’s wife has been forced to deal with the unbearable psychological and physical stress of spending hours communicating with lawyers and traveling between New York City and New Jersey trying to find the whereabouts of Khalil only to stay in the dark.
Will Khalil be able to be there with his wife on the day of Eid al-Fitr? Will he be able to be there by the side of his wife during the birth of their baby? If not, the United States does not really deserve to claim itself as “the land of the free.”
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We Will Protect Immigrants
With a budget working through Congress potentially allocating $350 billion for more detention facilities and to hire more ICE agents, our networks are ready to protect our families and neighbors.
Mar 02, 2025
When there were rumors that ICE agents were in the neighborhood, I called my mom to see if she could drive around and verify.
Such activities have been common to rapid response for years, even decades, as I learned when I first volunteered with immigrant rights groups that were organizing in response to the Bush administration’s workplace enforcement actions. Then, as now, people filled church basements with other community members for “know your rights” trainings. We were given red cards, which list the rights migrants have in the event that ICE detains them, to pass out to undocumented workers in our neighborhoods. Just a couple weeks ago, I attended a similar meeting in Oakland, California. We went over many of the same materials. The red cards are back. Also like years ago, the room was filled with that same intergenerational mix of people, including immigrants and their families, and people of faith.
But the difference this time is how everyone has cell phones. We exchanged information, not only contacts, but for websites. We set up text groups. And now, we communicate, not only in our neighborhoods, but with similarly minded people from around the country. In fact, while I live in California, my mother is in Wisconsin. Organizations, such as the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have facilitated these nationwide networks, mobilizing since President Donald Trump took office to host virtual and in-person trainings on themes such as how to monitor ICE if they appear in your neighborhood, why 287g agreements ought to be opposed, and what rights undocumented immigrants have.
Trump and Homan are not enforcing laws, but using the state to commit acts of violence that spread fear and terror.
Just as important as the knowledge we circulate is how our networks are built on the firm foundation of trust and care that exists within our neighborhoods. With a budget working through Congress potentially allocating $350 billion for more detention facilities and to hire more ICE agents, our networks are ready to protect our families and neighbors.
Besides concern for our neighbors and loved ones, we also see through the Trump administration’s bald-faced lies. The most ready-used lie, whether spouted by Trump himself, or his “Border Czar,” Tom Homan, is that they are going after “the worst first.”
Case in point of the administration’s mistruths on immigration enforcement was seen in the deportation of Luis Alberto Castillo from Venezuela, who had the misfortune to cross the border shortly before Trump to office, and then found himself in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Castillo was sent to Cuba because immigration officials believed that one of his tattoos indicated that he was a gang member.
So much for due process.
Similarly, reporting shows that nearly half of the people arrested in Chicago a few weeks ago had no prior criminal record. Homan legitimizes these as “collateral arrests.” The rationale, according to Trump’s enforcer, is that ICE is forced to go out into the communities to find people because sanctuary cities release criminals from jails if they are arrested.
Again, smarter minds should wonder about the veracity to the logic Homan uses.
Think about it—what kind of police force, when looking for a particular suspect, would do blanket arrests of people in an area?
Supporters of mass deportation are quick to note that if a person is in the country without legal status, then they are subject to arrest and possibly deportation. Technically, they are right, as according to the U.S. Civil Code, anyone who enters the country without authorization is subject to removal.
But let’s be honest—the real reason for carrying out “collateral arrests” and deporting people trying to make a better life for themselves is to carry out a political agenda. Even before taking over, Homan broadcast that Chicago would be targeted and made the initial focal point of Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Moreover, the call for mass deportation plays directly into the right-wing “law and order” fantasy, connecting nicely with the other heavy-handed approaches to crimes such as increasing penalties for minor infractions like shoplifting.
The reality is that people come to the U.S. for a variety of reasons, with many forces, such as poverty, pushing them across borders and making them ineligible for asylum. “To do it the right way,” as others would encourage, is not possible for most because of our outdated immigration laws. Dating from a time when immigration was minimal, our laws place unreasonable limits on the number of people who could legally come to the U.S. from neighboring countries, creating the millions of undocumented immigrants who now reside in the country. Adding insult to injury, our laws are broken just as much by employers as by their workers. As both political parties have passed the buck for years on figuring out a legislative answer to this reality, the average time an undocumented person is in the United States has become 16 years.
Such a scenario calls not for enforcing the laws, but for reforming them. Our immigration system, as it currently exists with so many responsible for its failing, is illegitimate. Trump and Homan are not enforcing laws, but using the state to commit acts of violence that spread fear and terror.
Fear empowers those who wield it by isolating and freezing those who feel it. But fear becomes courage when we come together to share our experiences, whether in church basements, living rooms, school libraries, or coffee shops. Given that it is in human nature to live, love, work, and play together, courage will beat back fear. So, when serious politicians return to public life and show their readiness to work on real policies to address our decades-long immigration crisis, we will be ready to work with them. Until then, we will fight; just ask my mom.
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Close Guantánamo Permanently to Prevent It Being Used for Further Human Rights Abuses
The mass deportation and detention of asylum-seekers is not only unlawful but cruel—and not a real immigration solution.
Feb 23, 2025
In a deeply disturbing and unprecedented move, the U.S. has begun transferring immigrant detainees to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. They’re being held without access to their lawyers and families.
President Donald Trump has ordered up to 30,000 “high-priority” migrants to be imprisoned there as part of his larger mass deportation and detention campaign.
Trump claims these migrants are the “worst criminal aliens threatening the American people.” But recent investigations of those detainees have already challenged this narrative. And a large percentage of immigrants arrested in the U.S. have no criminal record.
We should also shut down the “War on Terror” prison at Guantánamo once and for all—and pursue accountability for its decades of abuses. Otherwise, it will only continue to expand.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time our government has invoked “national security” to deny marginalized communities their basic human rights. President George W. Bush created the infamous military prison at Guantánamo during the “War on Terror” to hold what his administration called the “worst of the worst.”
The prison has since become synonymous with indefinite detention—15 people still remain there today, over 20 years later. Notorious for its brutality and lawlessness, Guantánamo should be shut down, not expanded.
Of the 780 Muslim men and boys imprisoned there since January 2002, the vast majority have been held without charge or trial. Most were abducted and sold to the U.S. for bounty and “had no relationship whatsoever with the events that took place on 9/11,” reported the United Nation’s independent expert in 2023, who reiterated the global call to close Guantánamo.
The Bush administration designed the prison to circumvent the Constitution and the 1949 Geneva Conventions, refusing to treat the prisoners as either POWs or civilians. This legal fiction resulted in a range of human rights violations, including torture.
But the Constitution—and international law—still applies wherever the U.S. government operates. All prisoners, including immigrants, are still entitled to humane treatment, legal counsel, and due process.
“Never before have people been taken from U.S. soil and sent to Guantánamo, and then denied access to lawyers and the outside world,” said Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney in the ACLU case challenging Trump’s executive order.
However, the U.S. does have a sordid history of detaining migrants captured elsewhere at the base. As legal scholar Jeffrey S. Kahn points out, the U.S. has detained Haitians at Guantánamo on and off since the 1970s.
In the 1990s, thousands of Haitian refugees fleeing persecution following a military coup were captured at sea. The U.S. held them in horrific conditions at Guantánamo so they couldn’t reach U.S. shores to seek asylum—which is a fundamental human right long enshrined under U.S. law.
Shrouded in secrecy, the U.S. continues to capture and detain asylum-seekers fleeing Haiti, Cuba, and other Caribbean countries at Guantánamo. Last fall, the International Refugee Assistance Project reported that refugee families are kept in a dilapidated building with mold and sewage problems, suffer from a lack of medical care, and are “detained indefinitely in prison-like conditions without access to the outside world.”
Trump’s order would take these abuses to a horrifying new level.
Currently, the base’s existing immigration detention facility can hold up 120 people. Expanding it to 30,000 will require enormous resources. The “War on Terror” prison at Guantánamo already costs an estimated $540 million annually, making it one of the most expensive prisons in the world.
Then there are the moral costs.
The mass deportation and detention of asylum-seekers is not only unlawful but cruel—and not a real immigration solution. Instead, our government should prioritize meaningful immigration reform that recognizes the dignity of all people.
We should also shut down the “War on Terror” prison at Guantánamo once and for all—and pursue accountability for its decades of abuses. Otherwise, it will only continue to expand. “I can attest to the facility’s capacity for cruelty,” warned Mansoor Adayfi, who was subjected to torture and endured nearly 15 years at the prison.
Guantánamo’s legacy of injustice must end.
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