OntheWilderSide

Mahmoud Khalil and You and Me

I am afraid and my heart is broken.

I am stunned that neither Congress, nor my New York elected leaders could bring back our neighbor who was kidnapped by the federal government and brought to a southern prison.

Mahmoud Khalil is a lawful, permanent resident of the United States. And, Khalil is also a resident of New York, who was living in university housing with his wife, an American citizen.

ICE descended Mahmoud Khalil, just outside his residence, in an attempt to arrest both Kahlil and his wife. ICE was ignorant of the fact that Kahlil had a Green Card. Though, when faced with this fact, they simply changed their story on the spot and said that they would revoke his Green Card – instantly – as well. They whisked Kahlil away from New York, to a New Jersey center, and then to a detention center in Louisiana, without any stop at court.

It seems that they would also have arrested his pregnant wife, except for the fact that she asserted herself and called an attorney on the spot.

These are people who are similarly situated to myself and my friends. One of them was kidnapped. And, the one who is an American citizen was also, nearly arrested arbitrarily, by ICE, and without proper paperwork or process.

With this abduction happening, and with no governmental official being able to stop it, nor being able to get Khalil to his NY court date today, I feel entirely unsafe from the unbridled power, the whims, and the mistakes, of this presidential administration. I am appalled that neither the university, nor New York state officials, nor Congress were able to stop ICE from kidnapping a New Yorker and taking him far away to a southern prison.

And, then, to add insult to injury, that none of these leaders were able to put their foot down and make sure that Khalil – a lawful resident who has not been accused of any crime, nor accused of anything by more than mere spoken words coming from a politician – that Khalil would at least be brought to his home state and brought to appear in person in court today.

Khalil is being targeted over his Free Speech. He is being targeted because he participated in protests, and because of and/or in addition to the fact that he was a nonviolent, respected, leader, who volunteered to help negotiations between his fellow students and the university trying to expel them.

I am trying to put this situation in perspective for myself. I definitely believe, like some brave Congresspeople have noted in a letter, that this incident was an abduction, perpetrated by the federal government.

My husband is reading  a novel to my daughter: BFG by Roald Dahl. It is about a clan of giants who terrorize the countryside by stealing children from their homes to eat them.

Because Congress and our state elected officials — who are the buffer we need from the federal government — allowed Khalil to be taken from his home, and because these leaders could not force Kahlil to be allowed to come back to NY for his due process today, I feel like we are all at risk.

Something as scary — or scarier — than a man-eating giant has suddenly been given the power to pluck me from my home and be taken to another state and put in prison.

And, if that happened, now it is being shown, that the State of New York will hold a court case without me there to defend myself, and without me being in my hometown where my family can visit me?

The situation is upsetting, unnerving, unjust, and unbelievable.

And, it is happening.

Congresspeople and the State of New York need to ensure that states can protect residents from the overreach of the executive branch of the federal government. It is a shame that neither the Mayor, nor the NYPD, nor the university, could handle ICE better, and so were unable to protect Kahlil from this undemocratic atrocity and kidnapping.

We need our elected officials who understand democracy and due process to intervene quickly.

First, they came for Mahmoud. We are all too close behind. Resist.

_____________________________

Kimberly Wilder is a poet, community organizer, and perennial candidate. She lives in Riverhead, Long Island, NY and likes to cause good trouble side-by-side with her family and friends.

Filed under: immigration, new york, New York State Politics, News, politics, president, progressive politics Tagged: | abduction of Mahmoud Khalil, arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, can Green Card holders be deported?, due process, Free Speech, ice, immigration justice, immigration law, immigration rights, Mahmoud Khalil, Mayor Eric Adams, New York politics, Palestinian people, protest movement, Trump Administration