We are undeniably living in a historical time, partially due to the actions of President Trump. I often hear people say that they like Trump because he runs America like a business, but if that’s true, what happens to the people who disagree with his business practices?
The United States has made a lot of waves recently with its arrests and detentions of people who are in the country legally. A key name in these articles is Mahmoud Kalil.
His arrest for his pro-Palestine opinions and activism alerted a lot of people to the lack of security that green card holders have, especially given the current stances of our administration.
The idea that ICE can come into your home, acting on orders from the State Department, tell you that they are taking away your student visa and then when they find out you are a permanent resident, having the possibility of your visa being taken away is not only shocking, it is terrifying.
I would like to clarify, there are reasons that a green card can be taken away such as committing fraud or being a member of a terrorist organization. But that is not what happened in this case. This threat of deportation happened because of Khalil’s identity as a Palestinian and his desire to use his voice to speak up for his people.
Khalil has been on record stating his desire to help liberate people and how he thinks that “the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other.”
These are not the words of someone who is a threat to national security. This is someone who seeks change.
The Trump administration claims that he gave out fliers that aligned with Hamas and that made him “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States,” according to Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.
But if that were true, the Trump administration would not now be using a whole different reason for his arrest after their original reason for his deportation was blocked by a judge.
The idea that someone could be deported over something that thousands of citizens were doing is scary. It should be something we are all paying attention to.
What we are seeing is not someone who is a threat to national security, we are seeing a college student who is openly disagreeing with not only what our government is doing but also one of their allies. That is what our administration doesn’t like. This is a clear message that the current government will bend the law to align with their opinions and feelings about things. The president tweeting that this arrest will be “the first of many,” is objectively scary. The idea of ICE coming onto our campuses and detaining your classmates is objectively scary. This is meant to be a place where we learn about policy and question those in power, not somewhere that silences students out of fear.
This is a weaponization of immigration services, and as a green card holder myself, I’m scared. This is not the America I signed up for.
