1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I write today to urge you to condemn in the strongest possible terms the Trump administration’s recent actions in the immigration case of Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States who was recently arrested and detained by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). As you hopefully are aware, Mahmoud Khalil is a recent Columbia University graduate who helped lead campus protests against the Israeli occupation of Gaza during his studies there last year. Mr. Khalil holds a green card and is married with a child on the way. On Saturday night, ICE agents entered Mr. Khalil’s home and arrested him. Over the phone, an agent first told his lawyer that his student visa had been revoked; when she pointed out that he was a legal permanent resident, the agent told her that that status was being revoked instead. In and of itself, this apparent confusion is problematic and suggests that ICE is acting without clear legal justification. Even with a legal justification, however, this action seems extreme and unwarranted. As a Jew, I am frightened by the rise in anti-Semitic sentiment in the United States, and I am certainly no fan of Hamas or other terrorist groups. However, I find it even more abhorrent that a legal permanent resident of this country would be denied the right to live here freely simply because he chose to exercise his rights to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution. Please defend the rule of law and the rights of legal immigrants to live their lives without fear of government oppression in the United States. I urge you to speak out and take all possible and necessary actions to restrict the ability of the current administration to engage in these abhorrent actions.