1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Please address the egregious affront to free speech that has been happening across university campuses. The detention and targeting of Mahmoud Khalil is an outrageous assault on free speech, due process, and the fundamental rights of immigrant communities. His detention is a deliberate act of repression—an authoritarian attempt to silence protest, intimidate faculty and students, and crush dissent. This glaring abuse of power sends a chilling message: those who challenge injustice risk being forcibly removed, detained, or worse. It is a tactic ripped straight from the playbook of regimes that fear critical thought and public resistance. Moreover, this attack has been amplified by threats to universities themselves. By withholding $400 million in funding from Columbia University, the federal administration has forced them to change how they do business. Dictating how a private university should run its business, at best, is an over reach of government. At worst, It is a step in the playbook of autocracy. Stand up against this with all you have, or our university system will become crippled.