Khalil, probably: Yes, this place has a better view than at our last meeting had. (Via X/@RepMcGovern)

Just over a month after a judge released him, Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil came to Capitol Hill to lobby on behalf of Palestinians. Of course, the context of Khalil’s visit was not just the war in Gaza he had opposed as a student. Donald Trump and cronies had imprisoned Khalil, a lawful permanent resident with US citizen family, for his activism at Columbia after the war broke out.

Among those Khalil met were members of the 413’s delegation including Senator Ed Markey and 2^nd Massachusetts District Rep James McGovern. Markey, McGovern and Boston Representative Ayanna Pressley had visited Khalil and Tufts student Ruymesa Ozturk at federal detention camps in Louisiana. Obviously, this week’s visits came under quite different circumstances.

“I met with him in detention when he spent 104 days behind bars—targeted by Trump for speaking out against Netanyahu’s vicious war in Gaza,” McGovern said of Khalil on social media. “Silencing dissent is un-American. We must defend the right to speak freely!”

McGovern’s district stretches west from Worcester to Western Massachusetts to cover communities like Amherst, Greenfield and Northampton. Markey, Pressley and other Democratic reps have been quite vocal in their opposition to arresting students like Khalil. However, McGovern has a long history of advocate for international human rights. As a staffer for the late Rep Joe Moakley, McGovern traveled to El Salvador to investigate human rights abuses there.

On X/Twitter, McGovern posted photos of his meeting with Khalil. The images show the two conversing and taking in the commanding view of the Capitol from  McGovern’s office balcony.

Mahmoud Khalil & I got to meet up in my office earlier today. I met with him in detention when he spent 104 days behind bars—targeted by Trump for speaking out against Netanyahu’s vicious war in Gaza.

Silencing dissent is un-American. We must defend the right to speak freely! pic.twitter.com/b0JQapWrER

— Rep. Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) July 23, 2025

Khalil, a Palestinian with Algerian citizenship, was among at least four lawfully present academics and students Trump and his administration imprisoned for expressing support for the Palestinians. While Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, a Vermont resident, had played prominent roles in protests on campus, others like Ozturk and Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Siri, only ever aired their thoughts in writing.

Marco Rubio, America’s first invertebrate Secretary of State, used a Cold War-era law to effectively order their removal from the United States. (A fifth, Columbia student Yunseo Chung, who moved to the US as a child, evaded Immigration & Customs Enforcement until a judge enjoined her arrest.)

The Supreme Court recognized that noncitizens have First Amendment rights 80 years ago. The government has admitted the law Rubio used has only seen use against international fugitives and suspected terrorists.

The only way to deport a lawful permanent resident like Khalil would be for crimes or other violations of law. However, the government has mustered no evidence to that effect. Khalil negotiated with Columbia on behalf of students. While antisemitic incidents occurred during those protests, there is no evidence Khalil had any connection to them.

There’s always a Massachusetts connection…and at the Moakley courthouse no less. (via Wikipedia)

Instead, evidence presented during a related federal trial in Boston suggest radical pro-Israel groups had targeted Khalil and others simply on social media for opposing the war in Gaza. Testimony in that trial suggests such online posts somehow became policy when Trump returned to office.

Immigration enforcement is officially a civil matter and the formal term is detention. There are many horrors associated with the United States’ immigration system. Yet, using immigration detention to stifle speech—as opposed to manage immigrants, however heartlessly—is effectively political imprisonment. Khalil missed the birth of his son and his graduation while held in Louisiana.

The New Jersey federal judge who released Khalil had put few restrictions on his travel. Khalil’s lawyers suggested that Washington would be on his itinerary eventually. Khalil told reporters his main agenda is urging lawmakers to help bring an end to the war in Gaza, which has become a humanitarian disaster.

While maintaining focus on Palestine, Khalil has become a symbol of broader defiance to the more tyrannical elements of Trump II. Some skeptics of pro-Palestine protesters quickly rallied behind those the regime incarcerated.

Upon release, Khalil, Khan Suri, Ozturk and Mahdawi have vividly recalled the deplorable conditions—material and psychological—immigration detainees face. Their narratives, the weaponization of immigration law to punish people exercising their Constitutional rights and indiscriminate raids have likely contributed to a collapse in support for Trump on immigration, once his strongest issue.

Khalil remains tied up in the courts. As Markey alluded to in his post to Bluesky, the threat to free speech remains.

“I’m relieved that after 104 days of unlawful detention, he has finally been released. But the fight is far from over. We must not be silent in the face of Trump’s attacks,” Markey wrote on Wednesday.

After visiting Mahmoud Khalil in a Louisiana detention center, it was good to reunite with him in my office today. I’m relieved that after 104 days of unlawful detention, he has finally been released. But the fight is far from over. We must not be silent in the face of Trump's attacks.

— Senator Ed Markey (@markey.senate.gov) 2025-07-24T01:57:31.765Z