So It Begins: The Disappearing of Mahmoud Khalil and Authoritarian Capture

The Trump Administration kidnapped a legal permanent resident and shuffled him through an authoritarian maze. We're witnessing the beginnings of something terrifying

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On Saturday night, immigration agents within the Department of Homeland Security took Mahmoud Khalil from his student housing residence at Columbia University. While his eight months pregnant wife tried to communicate that he held a green card, agents threatened to arrest her as well. As of this writing, it’s still unclear where Khalil is as he has seemingly been shuffled from one detention center to another. Presently it appears he may be in Louisiana, but authoritarian structures tend to obscure where their targets are and what is happening to them.

During the arrest agents seemed confused about Khalil’s immigration status, only referring to his student visa, but then, on the fly, saying his green card had been revoked. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a truly nauseating turn, tweeted that he was “revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters so that they can be deported.” Never mind that he doesn’t have authority to do such a thing or that there’s no attempt to discern the difference between someone protesting the ongoing brutality in Gaza and someone “supporting Hamas.” Whatever that means.

Right now, from what we know, Khalil’s “crime” was exercising his First Amendment rights. It should be noted that the administration has already pulled $400 million dollars of support for Columbia (don’t cry for them - their endowment is $14.8 billion dollars and rising) because of the protests and Columbia administrators are tripping over themselves to address what they call “legitimate concerns” from Donald Trump and company.

This is an escalation in the ongoing authoritarian takeover and it is specifically designed to encroach on guaranteed protections. We’ve heard a whole host of threats, including the possibility of sending American citizens to El Salvador to rot in some of the most totalitarian and brutal prisons in the world. Threats to impinge on free speech, to wage lawfare using the Department of Justice and the FBI. But this step over the line by throwing a person with legal status, which is in and of itself an escalation of the awful immigration sweeps and raids, is a clear signal of where this is all heading.

Authoritarian regimes rely on an ability to take anyone at any given time and then toss them into a bureaucratic maze of their construction, creating confusion and terror, opening the door to other crimes, including torture and illegal interrogation, and sending a clear and obvious message to anyone considering standing in their way: the next knock could be on your door.

All of it is aided by an arsenal of convenient linguistic games. “Terrorists.” “Supporters of Hamas.” “Enemies of the state.” These game facilitated slews of crimes against humanity during the War on Terror and a host of authoritarian crackdowns throughout history. Here, in the United States, during the First Red Scare, this was how the state rid itself of “troublesome” elements, including labor unions and organizers, rounding them up and deporting them in order to grease the skids for capitalist domination. The gameplan is as clear as day. And, in the midst of this aggression, we need to once again remember there are human beings involved. People with lives. People with families, including Mahmoud Khalil, whose wife is an American citizen.

The mind reels in horror.

We cannot discuss this awfulness without also acknowledging the rot it was built upon. Khalil would not have been taken had it not been for the events that unfolded during the student protests in 2024 and the omnipresent political and cultural reaction. The atrocities in Gaza deserved condemnation regardless of who was in office at the time, and the sycophantic fealty of some to Joe Biden and the Democratic Party created a firestorm in which people who flaunt themselves as supporters of human rights and human dignity lined up to cheer on college students being beaten and arrested by law enforcement and obviously grotesque displays of violence and intimidation by mobs of anti-protesters.

Now that we are in this crisis, that moment deserves some attention and reconsideration. These students were our allies. They should be part of our coalition and movement. The message sent to them was that they weren’t honored, respected, or welcome. They were treated to a healthy dose of state violence, which communicated to them and everyone watching, regardless of whether they supported them or not, that protesting and organizing in the United States of America was to risk that same violence being visited upon them. Now that we need to be in the streets, we must remember that the last fledgling movement was met with disdain and brutality, so is it any wonder that people are hesitant to protest? It made this fight harder. It set us back.

It still sickens me to remember this period and see scores of liberals line up with the Republican Party and Democratic leaders who were more than happy to condemn these students. They coalesced in not just cheering on the violence, but also willingly swallowed a framing that protests designed to support the Palestinian people, who were being killed and brutalized at a dizzying speed, were necessarily antisemitic. Were they antisemitic things said at these rallies? Surely. Masses of people often say things that are awful and I’m sure some people were guilty of spreading hate. But to paint it all as something sinister rather than a needed protest, to forget how many Jewish Americans participated because they saw what was wrong and wanted to speak out, was detestable.

I was horrified watching it. As a former college professor, my heart ached seeing people revel in the beatings and even wish for more violence and even state-sponsored murder. It felt like a wrong turn that began to eat away at the Democratic Party and the liberal/progressive/nascent left coalition, a schism that came to harm the Democrats in the 2024 Election in a way that most pundits and politicians still won’t reckon with.

And so, we find ourselves here. Khalil’s disappearing is a capitalization on that schism, an action that was carried out with the idea that liberals and others who jumped on board with ignoring the ongoing genocide and the breadth of voices decrying it will happily stand down as the authoritarian push gains speed and momentum. Like what has happened in Gaza, any bargaining with this putrid poison only makes it worse. It’s the same issue as the U.S. playing ball with tinpot dictators in the pursuit of profits, cheap labor, and resources. The same issue as partnering with former fascists and Nazis following World War II. Authoritarianism doesn’t appear over night. It grows and feeds off these deals and partnerships that chip away at any moral or ethical authority. It feasts on corruption. On capitulation and cooperation.

We now find ourselves in a country where gay and trans people have been largely abandoned and considered expendable. Where people of color have watched the gains of the Civil Rights Movement shredded. Where women have been quickly turned into an afterthought as chauvinistic patriarchal control continues to reassert itself. Where the poor have already been thrown to the wolves as Neoliberal austerity and intentional inequality have reigned for generations.

Every person we sacrifice, every espoused principle we discard, every deal with authoritarianism only makes it stronger. And what happened this weekend should be seen for what it is: another step down the road of blatant, irrepressible authoritarianism.

God help us.

If we are to defeat this thing it will mean recognizing our interconnectedness and moving beyond these framings and paradigms that got us here in the first place. Mahmoud Khalil’s disappearing deserves your attention and your outrage. Who knows what lies are going to be told about this, what advantageous story you’re going to be told. But deep down what matters is this: they knocked on his door, and, unless we stand together, they will knock on your door as well.

Resources

• What the Hell is Going On: Here is an explainer regarding our present circumstances for anyone who has had a feeling that the traditional Democrat / Republican / Red / Blue narrative was hiding something. Here, we go through the problems in the United States and how the wealth class has effectively put itself in a position to totally takeover our government.

• The Oligarchical Order: A primer on how to give up conventional and failed political understandings in favor of seeing how capitalism directs the course of events and where it is leading and what to expect.

• Authoritarianism and the Crisis of Meaning: Here we get into how consumerism represents an addictive drug that has hollowed out our sense of purpose, leaving us to take this as a moment of self-reflection, recognize that we have effectively been made to hate and doubt ourselves, thereby keeping us from realizing we deserve better.

• A Thoroughly Confused Country: Americans have little in the way of class consciousness, which was an intentional state desired by the wealth class. This primer gets into the class makeup of the United States, including contradictions and motivations, that will be crucial in understanding as we do our work.

• Authoritarianism as Clarity: As authoritarians take power, the world becomes a lot clearer. We can see who we can trust and who we shouldn’t. This episode gets into the history of Vichy France and the lessons we can learn on how to operate as individuals within an authoritarian environment.

• Fostering Hope in Hard Times: Some thoughts on how to maintain hope as authoritarianism sweeps in.

• Understanding the Enemy: A guide through the evolution of capitalism from free markets to its current evolving form - oligarchical authoritarianism, as well as insights into how our politics has made this change happen and moments in which the evolution has been curbed.

• Get Ready: Preparing for the incoming ICE / federal immigration raids with resources for immigrants and allies.

• They're Trying to Crush You: I discuss the emotional toll of the beginning onslaught of the Trump Administration and how it is a strategy for demoralizing us before we can begin resisting.

• A Coup in Plain Sight: An explainer detailing what is happening with Musk, DOGE, and the takeover of the government.

• The Birth of a Monster: A history of how the oligarchical class came to be and what their ideology reveals about what a future under their control would entail.