For Immediate Release
Contact: press@blmgrassroots.org
March 14, 2025
Free Mahmoud Khalil!
The fascist capture of Mahmoud Khalil, carried out by the white-supremacist state in collusion with Columbia University, is meant to serve as a threat to all organizers of conscience, especially those who are Palestinian or carry otherwise marginalized identities. This regime and its collaborators are now brazenly saying: “Do not resist, or we will disappear you.” Mahmoud, a green card holder and expectant father who is married to an American citizen, was unlawfully kidnapped by ICE under the direction of the fascist Trump regime and enabled by Columbia University.
Initially, Mahmoud was scheduled for immediate deportation, which was only halted by the successful demand made by organizers for judicial intervention. He remains caged in the labyrinth of the criminal legal system. Since Mahmoud’s capture, the White House has made horrifying comments to assail his character, falsely labeling him a “radical foreign pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University,” and issuing their own thinly veiled zionist threats. The regime further warns that this will not be the last capture of its kind, in attempts to intimidate all who dare speak out for Palestine and against state terror—including Black Lives Matter grassroots organizers.
What we are witnessing now feels unprecedented and also familiar. We are seeing the highest offices in the land function as a modern-day gestapo. They are terrorizing Palestinian Americans and their supporters for the crime of simply existing. Mahmoud did nothing wrong. In fact, standing for a #FreePalestine is a moral imperative, demonstrated beautifully through Brother Mahmoud’s commitment and effort.
Protesting is our right and our duty. Black Lives Matter Grassroots strongly condemns the ever-growing fascism of the Trump/Vance/Musk administration and all those forces that seek to further harm courageous voices that stand for liberation and freedom. As Black people, we are all too familiar with our organizing and our very lives being criminalized. It is our solidarity and our resistance that has ensured our survival. We pledge our steadfast commitment to tear down the systems of tyranny which made this kidnapping a reality. To our dearest Brother Mahmoud, we thank you for your sacrifice, we pray for your safety, and we demand and organize for your freedom.
To Sister Khalil—Mahmoud’s wife—we support you, knowing what it means to see our loved ones in danger for daring to fight back in a world that seeks to silence and destroy us. To the righteous student protesters, we are with you—in the streets and in our hearts. We see you and encourage your necessary, principled, disciplined resistance.
To the faculty, we say, stand by your students. Use your relative power to protect those who are most vulnerable to state terror. To university administrations, we challenge you to stand up against raids and captures. Refuse to collude with the fascist state. Firmly commit to serving as beacons of intellectual exploration and growth and providing sanctuary to students and community members doing the necessary work of freedom building. To righteous organizers everywhere, continue to organize and fight! The fight for Mahmoud’s freedom is a fight for our own. We say to the people, our people, this is not a drill! Fascism is here! We must resist! Refuse to do the bidding of the regime.
Take action—big and small—to protect all that we hold dear: our rights, our people, our world. This is our sacred duty. Black Lives Matter Grassroots and all of our 39 chapters stand unwaveringly by our Palestinian siblings and with our people. We demand the immediate release of Brother Mahmoud Khalil—and all political prisoners. We demand an end to state terror and the ushering in of real democracy.
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Black Lives Matter Grassroots
The mission of Black Lives Matter Grassroots is to support, sustain, and uplift the necessary agitations, mobilizations, community organizing, and initiatives of Black Lives Matter chapters to fulfill our sacred duty to advance Black liberation. #BlackLivesMatter was birthed to end state-sanctioned violence against Black people. Black Lives Matter Grassroots is a collective of 39 chartered chapters globally working on the ground since 2013.
