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Statement in Support of Mahmoud Khalil and Other Detained Activists
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The National Organization of Legal Services Workers (NOLSW) - UAW Local 2320, demands the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University and a lead negotiator and organizer for the Gaza Solidarity Encampment last spring. We condemn his detainment by DHS, Columbia University’s complicity in this escalation, and the Trump administration’s plan to target student activists - a brazen attempt to quell free speech and the movement for Palestinian liberation. NOLSW stands in solidarity with all workers, students, and activists fighting for Palestine, and NOLSW will always defend freedom of speech for all people and oppose any attempts to dismantle civic society and intellectual expression.
On the evening of March 8, as he returned to his apartment, Mahmoud Khalil was detained by two plainclothes DHS agents. According to the Associated Press the agents refused to identify themselves and threatened to arrest Mahmoud’s wife, who is eight months pregnant, if she did not leave. The agents claimed that Mahmoud’s student visa had been revoked by the State Department, but when his wife provided Mahmoud’s green card, the agent was confused and eventually claimed that the State Department had revoked that too. When his attorney tried to intervene on the phone, the agents hung up on her. Mahmoud is currently being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana.
Columbia University has continued its attack on workers, students, and the movement for Palestine. Leqaa Kordia is a doctoral student at Columbia University from the West Bank and was arrested by DHS agents less than a week after Mahmoud. Leqaa is a student activist who supported the Gaza Solidarity Encampment last spring. In the same week, Columbia fired and expelled student worker and UAW Local 2710 President Grant Miner a day before collective bargaining was to begin. NOLSW condemns this clear violation of free speech and the rights of workers and students.
The unlawful detainment of Mahmoud reflects the intensification of bipartisan efforts to stamp out the widely supported movement for Palestine while manufacturing consent for genocide. This act is a blatant violation of our First Amendment rights and due process, and it is a misuse of the legal system to silence and deter activists. NOLSW remains steadfast in our support for Palestinian liberation, and we stand in solidarity with our many members currently working to defend the rights of student activists and immigrants like Mahmoud. We call on UAW and all unionists to demand his immediate release. We ask our union siblings (individuals and other unions) to sign this petition, with already over 3 million signatures, and donate to Mahmoud’s legal defense fund.
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