In a video released to social media, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) slammed the Trump Administration detaining and attempting to deport Mahmoud Khalil.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00A young man by the name of Mahmood Khalil, an immigrant and a legal permanent resident
00:04of the United States, is being held right now in prison, even though no criminal charges
00:09have been filed against him.
00:11Now I want to tell you why that should matter to every single American.
00:14Khalil is a recent graduate of Columbia University.
00:17He opposed Israel's military operation in Gaza.
00:20He has deep animus toward Israel's policies and the U.S. support for those policies.
00:25He helped organize the protests over Gaza at his university last year.
00:29You can disagree with his views or his politics, but there is no evidence he has broken any
00:35law.
00:36But last weekend, Trump officials entered his apartment and took him into custody.
00:41They brought him to a detention facility in New Jersey at first, but when his family went
00:45to visit him, he wasn't there.
00:46For a while, his family and his lawyer had no idea where he was.
00:50They eventually found out that he was being held in a detention facility in Louisiana,
00:55and that's where he still is today.
00:57In dictatorships, they call this practice being disappeared.
01:02No charges, no claims of criminal behavior.
01:05The White House doesn't claim he did anything criminal.
01:08He's in jail because of his political speech.
01:11And here's why everybody should care.
01:14In America, your political speech is protected, whether or not the president likes what you
01:20say.
01:21But today, if you're loyal to Donald Trump, your speech is going to be protected, even
01:25if it's hate speech.
01:27You can be Marco Ellis, an employee of Doge, who said he, quote, was racist before it was
01:32cool and quote, normalize Indian hate.
01:36And the vice president of the United States will tweet in your defense.
01:40But if you are disloyal to Trump or you're organizing against Trump's political agenda,
01:45your speech could be criminalized.
01:47You could find yourself in jail.
01:49Now, Trump chose to begin by disappearing a Palestinian immigrant, hoping that his place
01:54of birth and his immigrant status would just cause people to look the other way.
01:59But we cannot.
02:01Because once it becomes normal for the regime to disappear people simply for protest against
02:07the regime's policies, once a citizen or a resident of America can be locked away with
02:13no charges against them simply because they protested, there is no going back for America.
02:20Even if you're a hardened Trump supporter, this practice should cross the line for you.
02:25Even if you disagree with Khalil's views, this practice should cross the line for you.
02:31This has nothing to do with supporting Trump.
02:33This is about supporting an American value, maybe the most important American value, protecting
02:40free speech, even if it's speech you disagree with.
02:45If our new reality is that a president can disappear an opposition protester with no
02:51charges filed against them, we are not America any longer.
02:56Today it's Mahmoud Khalil.
02:58Tomorrow it's me or you.