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The crackdowns continue
The arrest of Palestinian activist and former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil is just the beginning as the Trump administration moves to silence students and union members who support Palestine, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
UNIVERSAL CONDEMNATION: (L to R) Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil on Columbia University campus in New York; Protesters in Foley Square, outside the Manhattan federal court on March 12

MAHMOUD KHALIL, the former Columbia University student and Palestinian activist who, on March 8, was abruptly arrested and transported to a detention facility in Louisiana, has spoken out for the first time since his ordeal began.

On Tuesday, in a letter dictated over the phone, Khalil described the horrors he has been witnessing daily since being sent to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Louisiana after being unaccounted for in the immediate aftermath of his arrest. So far he has faced no charges.

Describing himself as “a political prisoner,” Khalil said that “I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.

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