Pushing Back Against Harmful Governments Shouldn’t Lead to Threats of Revoked Residency Status

Image description: A photo of Mahmoud Khalil with a collage of olives, kufiyah, chains, flowers, water, a phone, and a megaphone. The text reads "Free Mahmoud Khalil" with a white freedom oklahoma logo.

You might have heard of Mahmoud Khalil. It feels hard to escape his name and face over this last week, rightfully so, but it can be difficult to tell if that’s just the corner of the Internet I’ve crafted for myself. So, if the name Mahmoud Khalil is new to you: 

On Saturday (3.8.25) Mahmoud was abducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from his home, and forced to leave his wife who is 8-months pregnant. He is currently being detained by Immigration Customs & Enforcement (ICE), and was disappeared from his home in New York to a facility in Louisiana, cut off from his family, attorneys, and community, in an intentional tactic by the state to escalate despair, and find a more favorable judge than in his home jurisdiction. These are all parts of enforced disappearance, which the US government has predominantly promoted and used against people outside of the boundaries of the United States. 

The act of family separation, of caging anyone, particularly in a cage inaccessible for visitation, is cruel in any case. It’s become a frequent expectation of not only our criminal punishment system, but also of the crimmigration machine that we have seen grow out of the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (January 2003) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (March 2003). And, in an escalation of the harms of these agencies, a unique thing about Khalil's case is he is a green card holder - or permanent resident. So I want you to think about the folks in your community: neighbors, family, friends - while ICE raids happen throughout the nation. What does it do to communities we are fighting alongside and for to see the act of revoked residency because they decided to hold our government accountable? 

The actions that led to Mahmoud’s abduction and detainment?

Vocally condemning the genocide of the Palestinian people. This is a blatantly unconstitutional and hostile escalation, an authoritarian action, taken by DHS and ICE against Mahmoud. This is only part of a reign of hostile escalations and authoritarian actions that many of us not directly impacted by the work of DHS and ICE have become desensitized to. We have seen the expansion of mass deportations and the growing attacks on speech that criticizes the genocidal Israeli state, at the federal and state levels.

The "pathway" to citizenship is littered with obstacles, from economic to judicial to political, that make it hard and sometimes impossible for folks to attain. Folks can pay tens of thousands of dollars and spend decades wading through the legal system to try and access citizenship in the US. Those obstacles increase for Black and Brown immigrant communities. 

According to law, once you've received citizenship through naturalization, that can only be revoked for a specific set of reasons by an immigration judge. Similarly, for folks who have gone through the bureaucratic process of permanent residency, such as Mahmoud Khalil, there is supposed to be some level of safety in the ability to continue to reside in the US. What we are witnessing should shake all of our communities to action. Because the state disappearing anyone should make us take urgent action to demand their liberation, and because the state indicating that they’re comfortable disappearing permanent residents for speech the current administration finds disagreeable should rightfully enrage us all. 

Mahmoud has had his permanent resident status threatened because he vocally pushed back against our nation's leaders funding a genocide. A genocide paid for with our tax dollars to reinforce the military operations that disproportionately harm women and children while killing off entire bloodlines in Palestine. Our tax dollars are being used to support the Israeli government's continued violation of ceasefire agreements, while it limits food and medical aid to the Palestinian people. People who have shown us time and time again their commitment to survive in the face of genocide, and in their homeland specifically. The US government has taken our money while cutting funding that allows for our kids to eat. We can't provide folks with basic resources needed to survive, despite having the money to do so because our government would rather fund a genocide than help our people. This has been the status quo across administrations, regardless of party affiliation. And, with this action, we’re seeing the blatant disregard for laws and norms continue to escalate in a way that threatens the safety of all historically marginalized and excluded folks across the US. A ramped attack on everyone who lends their voice, resources, time, and energy to speaking out against the harms of our government, against the harms of the Israeli government. 

If you can have your residency revoked because you vocally disagree with the US’s spending priorities, or because you question the government in public spaces, then what does that mean for organizing spaces, free thought, and free speech at large? What does that mean for our Constitution, when it continues to deteriorate to a document only invoked at the whims of the ruling class, and only to further oppress the people who have been most oppressed since it was first written?

Almost every day this administration tells us it is willing to throw its own rules out the window in order to keep this hungry Empire full and keep our communities starving.

To protect ourselves we must protect each other. We have to take action. That includes challenging attempts to further whitewash history and exclude the stories of revolutions and revolts. It includes fighting policies that attempt to enshrine in Oklahoma law that to criticize Israel is to engage in a hate-based activity. It means calling on the folks who say they care about free speech, but remain silent when those free speech rights are being further threatened and politicized. It means demanding that Mahmoud Khalil be freed, be returned to his home and family, to be with his wife and welcome his new child, and continue his advocacy for a future where Palestine is at last free from occupation, free from constant genocide, free from the oppression of settler colonialism. It means calling on Universities from Columbia to across Oklahoma. Columbia who conspired with DHS to allow Mahmoud to be taken, to those colleges across Oklahoma who are trying to write our access to equitable knowledge out their priorities, and defund the resources that seek to level the playing field and disrupt the legacy of harms by this colonial empire that is the US, that is Oklahoma.

Revolutions happen not because of the calls to action from the political elite of any party but in the everyday actions and work of the people. We free us. We care for us. We disrupt attempts to disappear, deport, and criminalize our neighbors. We tell our histories, we step in to fill in resource gaps, and we build the future where we all have the resources, community, and safety to thrive, everywhere we call home. May our demands for justice reach the ears of Mahmoud. May he know from the Red River to the Sea, we’re joined together in the fight to see him free. 

Resources, Actions, & Groups to Follow

There is a petition to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, here.

Oklahomans Against Occupation and other local orgs have organized a local action to call for Mahmoud to be freed, that is scheduled for Saturday 3/15 at Scissortail Park at 4PM, with additional details and updates available across their social media.

For information about organizing in support of immigrant communities in Oklahoma, you can look to our friends at Dream Action Oklahoma and Padres Unidos de Tulsa. 

If you want to support local immigrant organizing and organizing on the ground in Palestine, you can buy a shirt to show your support through the fundraising efforts of soft hand.

And, if you’re trying to follow Oklahoma efforts to implement policies that would chill speech that criticizes Israel or targets further harm at our immigrant communities, you can look to our 2025 legislative tracker for all of the bills we’re watching this session.