On the Arrest and Detention of Mahmoud Khalil
On March 8, 2025, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident and student at Columbia University. Though no one has filed any criminal charges against him, the State Department is now seeking to deport Khalil, who they accuse of promoting “terrorism” and “antisemitism” in connection with his role as an activist in the student-led protests against the genocide in Gaza.
Whether or not the Trump administration will succeed in deporting Khalil is unclear. What is clear is the chilling effect this move will have on the pro-Palestinian movement and revolutionary activism in the US, especially among students and non-citizens.
Sharpening tensions within the imperialist system are leading us to war and worsening conditions for the masses. The people, weary of the failures of bourgeois governance, now seek increasingly radical solutions. Whether they can find these solutions will depend on the level of activity, consciousness, and organization of the working people, the motor force of history.
Contradictions in the US are reaching a boiling point. The actions of both Democratic and Republican governments are driving discontent among the student population, many of whom are pushing for their colleges and universities to divest entirely from Israel in support of Palestine. However, for their efforts to succeed, they must aim their attacks at the system that enables Israel in its murderous actions: the capitalist system.
Israel today represents the naked face of this system in all its genocidal glory. By contrast, Palestine represents the faces of all those fighting for liberation from imperialist slaughter. Among those faces is that of Mahmoud Khalil.
Khalil’s arrest and detention marks a sharp escalation in the US government’s assault on the rights of working people. It signifies the desperation of an imperialist power fighting to maintain its position through the most reactionary and anti-popular measures. This power will not hesitate to unleash its full weight upon anyone who threatens the aims of the monopolies.
We must reiterate that this assault is a function of capitalism in crisis and not of the current administration specifically. Though it has grown more intense under Trump, it did not begin with him, nor will it end with him.
Anyone who calls themself a communist must condemn the actions of ICE and call for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil. Students and immigrant workers must be defended as vital components in the revolutionary movement, both here and internationally. Their struggles will be the crucible for new militant organizations able to fight for their interests and the collective interests of working people everywhere. However, these organizations can only succeed once they understand the true culprits of the social strife driving mass discontent across the world today: the capitalist class.
Only the defeat of capitalism can secure the rights of the people. Only by rebuilding the Communist Party in the United States can we hope to achieve this aim.
Free Mahmoud Khalil!