| Friend, Mahmoud Khalil was just returning from breaking his Ramadan fast with his wife when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents abducted him from his apartment.(1) Mahmoud is a green card holder and permanent U.S. resident, but the MAGA regime is attempting to deport him -- for exercising his First Amendment rights. Last year, as a graduate student at Columbia University, Mahmoud spoke out publicly against the Israeli siege of Gaza, and Donald Trump has ordered his residency be revoked and he be deported.(2)
This ICE arrest is a chilling demonstration of just how far the Trump administration will go to control free speech. Mahmoud hasn’t been charged with a crime at all. But he was still ripped from his wife -- who is eight months pregnant -- and flown to Louisiana to be detained for deportation.(3) And Trump says this arrest will be “the first of many to come.”(4) Mahmoud’s illegal ICE arrest flies in the face of one of the basic principles of our democracy -- the right to speak against our government. We cannot let this deportation happen. Sign now to tell the Department of Justice to immediately release Mahmoud Khalil! Thank you for being in the fight! –Irene, along with Annie, Angela, Isidra, Cecilia, Jen, and Lindsay (the Courage team)
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