Do not give up. Do not back down.
A clip Sen. Murphy posted on twitter:
"A young man by the name of Mahmoud Khalil, an immigrant and a legal permanent resident of the Unites States, is being held right now in prison, even though no criminal charges have been filed against him.
I want to tell you why that should matter to every single American. Khalil is a recent graduate of Columbia University. He opposed Israel’s military operation in Gaza. He has deep animus toward Israel’s policies and the U.S. support for those policies. He helped organize the protests over Gaza at his university last year. You can disagree with his views or his politics, but there is no evidence he has broken any law.
But last weekend, Trump officials entered his apartment and took him into custody. They brought him to a detention facility in New Jersey, but when his family went to visit him, he wasn’t there. For a while, his family and lawyer had no idea where he was. They eventually found out he was being held in a detention facility in Louisiana, and that’s where he still is today.
In dictatorships, they call this practice “being disappeared.” No charges, no claims of criminal behavior. The White House doesn’t claim he did anything criminal. He’s in jail because of his political speech. And here’s why everybody should care.
In America, your political speech is protected, whether or not the president likes what you say.
Today, if you’re loyal to Donald Trump, your speech is going to be protected–even if it’s hate speech. You can be Marko Elez, an employee of DOGE who said he “was racist before it was cool,” and "normalize Indian hate,’ and the vice president of the United States will tweet in your defense.
But if you are disloyal to Trump or you’re organizing against Trump’s political agenda, your speech could be criminalized. You could find yourself in jail.
Trump chose to begin by disappearing a Palestinian immigrant, hoping that his place of birth and his immigrant status would cause people to look the other way. But we cannot. Because once it becomes normal for the regime to disappear people simply for protest against the regime’s policies–once a citizen or a resident of America can be locked away with no charges against them, simply because they protested, there is no going back for America.
Even if you’re a hardened Trump supporter, this practice should cross the line for you.
Even if you disagree with Khalil’s views, this practice should cross the line for you.
This has nothing to do with supporting Trump. This is about supporting an American value–maybe the most important American value: protecting free speech, even if it’s speech you disagree with.
If our new reality is that a president can disappear an opposition protestor with no charges filed against them, we are not America any longer.
Today it’s Mahmoud Khalil. Tomorrow it’s me or you."
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And I’ll end with a quote from my newly favorite French senator: “In American history, the defenders of freedom have always prevailed. They are beginning to rise again.”
Edited: a few typos
Originally Posted By u/crookycrack At 2025-03-12 12:13:54 PM | Source