So, I posted the photo where I'm holding up a #FreeMahmoudKhalil sign on #BlueSky... 2 reposts! And they were both my friends irl. So yeah. Tell me that Blue Sky isn't mucking about with the algorithms? They most certainly are! But I'll stay on it just to keep up with #MaineProtests. Anyhow, now we know. Proving that the #Fediverse is the place to be!
#Protest held in #PortlandME to support #PalestinianActivist
March 18, 2025
PORTLAND (WGME) -- "A rally in downtown Portland was held Tuesday afternoon, protesting the detention and proposed deportation of a #Palestinian activist.
"Community leaders turned out in support of #MahmoudKhalil, a permanent U.S. resident and student who was arrested a week ago over his involvement in #ProPalestine protests at #ColumbiaUniversity.
"He's accused of distributing pro-Hamas propaganda, including flyers bearing the group’s logo and organizing protests that disrupted classes and harassed Jewish students.
"Khalil is currently being held by immigration officers in Louisiana but has not been charged with a crime.
"The State Department is looking to revoke his green card.
"His attorneys have filed a lawsuit challenging his detention, arguing his rights were violated.
"'This is a travesty of justice,' #FaisalKhan of the #CarolinaPeaceCenter said. 'A stain on the moral conscience of the United States. And yet, the American public remains largely silent. How much longer will the silence continue, I ask? How much longer will people turn away from the suffering of innocent lives. Silence is complicity.'"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/protest-held-in-portland-to-support-palestinian-activist/ar-AA1Bcl7i
#FreeMahmoudKhalil #FreeMahmoud #PortlandMaine #MaineResists #MaineResistance #USPol
"Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t theSenegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn’t the 21-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing.
Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities."
~Mahmoud Khalil
https://truthout.org/articles/i-am-a-political-prisoner-writes-mahmoud-khalil-from-ice-jail/
@MikeImBack -- #FreeMahmoudKhalil -- They don't get that their #2A rights are rooted in their #1A rights. Too many #MAGA #Gunowners don't get that if you take away peaceful protest and there is no other way to change your government, you are left with violence. They will then come for the guns in the name of public safety.
#GunOwners #2A #1A #FreeMahmoudKhalil #FreedomofSpeech #SocialistGunClub
There are a lot of #MAGA people who claim to love Guns and their freedom of speech awfully silent about this.
PACIFISM allows you to keep your guns. Peaceful protests allow you to keep your guns. If you take away that freedom to express yourself, it only makes violence more likely. If violence becomes the only way to change government, you know full well you no longer have your guns.
#FreeSpeech #1A #FreeGaza #FreePalestine #FreeMahmoudKhalil #HigherEd #deportation #Trump #MAGA
The one thing that conservatives don't understand is that you don't have a #2A if you don't have the #FirstAmendment
12 year old meme still true...
#PortlandME - Another #ProtestOfOne (the 11am one had a few more folks I hear). I mostly received support, some fist bumps and horns -- also "Traitor!" and some not nice things that I won't repeat. But I'm glad I was out there!
#FreeMahmoudKhalil #FreeMahmoud #resistance #ResistFascism #ResistTrump #MaineResists
"What is the administration so frightened of? It couldn’t have been what is actually happening on campus, where the Jewish students who were demonstrating for #MahmoudKhalil said prayers and sang songs in Hebrew."
The Law Is Not Always to Be Trusted
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-law-is-not-always-to-be-trusted/
#FreeMahmoudKhalil #USpol #USpolitics #PalestineSolidarity #ColumbiaU #StudentProtests #ICEdetention @palestine
@Jinjirrie@mastodon.socialThey repress, we #BDS. Take action in solidarity against white supremacist oppression by #Israel & the US. https://bdsmovement.net/news/freedom-mahmoud-khalil-let%E2%80%99s-insist-bds-and-continue-his-work #FreeMahmoudKhalil #USFascism
"The obvious reason the #Trump administration is making an example of #Columbia is the #GazaProtests of last spring, which began on Morningside Heights and spread at warp speed around the nation. But the government is also using its anti-Palestinian crackdown as an excuse to fulfill another one of its cherished goals: to crush the influence of prestigious universities."
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/columbia-mahmoud-khalil-response/
#FreeMahmoudKhalil #ColumbiaU #PalestineSolidarity #USpol #USpolitics #StudentProtests @palestine
The Legal Argument That Could Set #MahmoudKhalil Free
Lawyers trying to free the #ColumbiaUniversity activist point to a legal exception undermining the #Trump administration’s argument.
“The government doesn’t get to decide what you can talk about and what you cannot talk about based on whether or not it helps the U.S.”
by Jonah Valdez, March 13 2025
"Khalil’s attorneys plan to contest his detention on free speech grounds under the First Amendment and by challenging the government’s use of the '#ForeigPolicy' provision. By evoking the 'foreign policy' provision, the Trump administration is making a clear statement not just about its foreign policy goals but also free speech, Azmy said.
"'The United States government thinks Mahmoud’s speech in favor of Palestinian human rights and to end the genocide is not only contrary to U.S. foreign policy, which is something in itself, but that that dissent provides grounds for arrest, detention, and deportation,' Azmy said. 'It’s an astonishing claim.'
"Central to their challenge in court will likely be another provision within the Immigration and Nationality Act that exempts #noncitizens facing deportation under the government’s “foreign policy” provision. The exception, known as Section 212(a)(3)(C)(iii), says that an individual cannot be deported under the 'foreign policy' provision cited by the government if their 'past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations, if such beliefs, statements, or associations would be lawful within the United States.'
"In other words, since Khalil’s past activities were protected free speech under the First Amendment, he should not be deported under the 'foreign policy' provision cited by the government, Azmy said. The Department of Homeland Security has said it arrested Khalil, a lead negotiator for #Palestine solidarity protesters at Columbia, for having 'led activities aligned to Hamas.' But even if such alignments exist, advocacy is protected activity in the U.S., Khalil’s attorneys maintain.
"'If there is constitutionally protected speech,' Azmy said. 'It doesn’t matter if it goes adverse to the foreign policy interests of the United States — it’s still protected. The government doesn’t get to decide what you can talk about and what you cannot talk about based on whether or not it helps the U.S.'"
Original article:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/13/mahmoud-khalil-legal-free-speech-deport/
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/Su5P8
#FreeMahmoud #FreeMahmoudKhalil #FreePalestine #FreeSpeech
@Jinjirrie@mastodon.social7 times bankrupt, and unrestrained by checks and balances, #Trumpigula can take the whole world down. My cartoon today. #FreeMahmoudKhalil #USFascism #Cartoons #AICartoons
#Maine Voices for #Palestinian Rights - Weekly #Standouts & Mini-Rallies (Updated March 2025)
HUMAN RIGHTS ARE NEVER WRONG
"We are a group of people from #Maine and beyond who stand in solidarity with the #Palestinian people and seek to amplify their movement of liberation from occupation and #apartheid."
#BangorME
Wednesday - 12PM
6 State Street (Kenduskag Bridge)
#BelfastME
Sunday - 12PM Noon
Post Office Square
#BlueHillME
Saturday - 12PM Noon
Blue Hill Town Hall
#BrunswickME
Thursday - 12PM Noon
Maine St
(in front of Tontine Mall)
#BrunswickME
Friday - 5PM
Maine Street
(by Walgreens)
#BucksportME
Saturday - 12:30PM
Bucksport-Verona Bridge
#CamdenME
Friday - 5PM
Camden Village Green
#EllsworthME
Sunday - 12PM Noon
Union River Bridge
#FarmingtonME
Saturday - 12PM Noon
Post Office
#FreeportME
Every Other Monday - 1PM
Main Street & West Street
#PortlandME
Saturday - 1PM
Longfellow Square
#RocklandME
2nd + 4th Thursdays - 3PM
Maine & Park St
#SacoME
Friday - 2:30PM
#GeneralDynamics
Source:
https://www.mvprights.org/events
#FreePalestine #Gaza #WorldWarBibi #BibiIsAWarCriminal #Genocide #EndGenocide #MaineCoalitionForPalestine #MaineVoicesForPeace #PeaceActionMaine #MaineDSA #JVP #Palestine #Lebanon #Iran #NoWar #PeaceWorks #MaineVoicesForPalestinianRights #HumanRightsAreNeverWrong #MaineStudentsForPalestine #PSL #FreeMahmoud #FreeMahmoudKhalil
uspol
Free Mahmoud Khalil! #freemahmoudkhalil
America is now one long, lonely rural road in a tiny Mason-Dixon backwater run by fat greasy white crackers like to talk about 'respect'.
Violence and extortion are the only law and justice.
@Jinjirrie@mastodon.socialOnly 14 Dems stand up for US constitutional rights of free speech and protest. #USFascism is rampant. https://truthout.org/articles/only-14-house-members-sign-letter-calling-for-activist-mahmoud-khalils-release/ #StopIsrael #BDS #FreeMahmoudKhalil
Thankfully a NYC judge has ruled that Mahmoud Khalil can not be deported until his day in court.
The only problem is that the immigration courts are backed up, having a backlog of millions of cases!
Khalil could remain in jail as a form a pre-trial detention more or less indefinitely even though by many expert opinions he's likely to win his case if he fights for his rights.
