Mahmoud Khalil and the anti-popular war of the capitalists
Not long at all after Donald Trump announced that pro-Palestinian protestors would be deported if they were immigrants or expelled if they were citizens, Mahmoud Khalil — a Syrian national of Palestinian descent, a Green Card holder, a student at Columbia University, and a permanent resident of the United States — was arrested in his apartment by ICE agents and sent to a detention center in Louisiana. Khalil participated in the Columbia campus occupations in 2024 in protest of that university’s economic ties to Israel in the midst of the country’s genocidal crusade into Gaza.
Although a federal court has demanded that Khalil shall not be deported pending judicial review, he is still languishing in an ICE detention center along with 47,000 other American immigrants. But just as the vast majority of these new-found Americans are hardworking proletarians who are vital to the day-to-day economic function of this country and are hyper-exploited by American capitalists, Mahmoud Khalil himself is a student, and a man who has lent his voice and energy to the just cause of resisting Israeli colonialism, and resisting American imperialism.
Protests have erupted nationwide in furious resistance to this act of terror by the Trump administration. The working people of America have shown that they will not be intimidated, and will not suffer the ruling class to trample on these long-standing and hard-won political concessions. By detaining Khalil and threatening to deport him, the American bourgeoisie have shown their regard for free speech and the First Amendment to be nothing more than temporary privileges that will only be respected so long as speech and assembly does not harm their interests.
One of the main legal foundations for the recent order postponing Khalil’s deportation is his current status as a permanent resident. But this legal defense in and of itself is a paper shield, especially as the Trump administration aims to roll back birthright citizenship, which is protected under the 14th Amendment. The Trumpite administration has shown every indication of using the bourgeois legal apparatus to silence the loudest proletarian voices, and to strengthen the police and judiciary to the utmost possible extent.
In a recent statement, the American Party of Labor declared that the Trump administration was using threats to intimidate the masses while continuing to arm Israel, enabling the violation of the long-overdue January ceasefire. On March 8, the administration condemned Mahmoud Khalil to what is effectively political imprisonment, and just nine days later, the IDF renewed its bombing of Gaza, violating the ceasefire in less than two months after a year and a half of genocide.
It must be emphasized that Khalil’s plight intersects with the repression waged against immigrants in the United States, which include workers and laboring people from around the world. Just as proletarian internationalism demands resistance to every manifestation of imperialism, it also necessitates unremitting struggle to defend the rights of immigrants.
Make no mistake, Mahmoud Khalil is a political prisoner. Until he is free, until there are no political prisoners, no need to fight any longer for our social emancipation, we will never stop fighting!
The American bourgeoisie has all the subtlety of a pack of hyenas. But the American people, the Palestinian people, and the workers will not placidly submit to slaughter! We will continue to take to the streets. We will never abandon the cause of the Palestinian people!
Freedom for Mahmoud Khalil!
Freedom for all political prisoners!
End the genocide in Gaza and all aid to Israel!
All power to the working people!
For the Secretariat,
Camilo Lazo
National Chair, American Party of Labor