This month Mahmoud Khalil, a current Columbia College graduate who had labored with human rights teams and even the UK authorities, was detained in New York. His spouse, who’s eight months pregnant, stated her husband was not advised why he was being detained and that officers assumed he was on a visa – however truly he has a inexperienced card, permitting him to remain within the US and defending his constitutional rights.
Khalil says his detention is a part of a crackdown on dissent – and to discourage others from protesting. Throughout pro-Palestine protests on the Columbia campus final 12 months he acted as a mediator between the college and the demonstrators, and, not like many college students, left his face uncovered. Then Donald Trump was elected US president and promised to clamp down on pupil protests.
Prof Joseph Howley, who is aware of Khalil, says he’s “conspicuously dedicated to non-violent decision of battle, conspicuously dedicated to an inclusive imaginative and prescient of liberation and peace”. He tells Michael Safi why the implications of the federal government’s efforts to detain and deport Khalil are “extremely chilling”.
Chris McGreal, who writes for Guardian US, explains the background to the case and whether or not free speech and the best to protest are secure in Trump’s America.
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