The arrest and threat of deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of the Columbia university, indicates that Trump intends to produce the third version of an old film. Original red panic unfolded in the wandering trail, under the impact of the Russian revolution and the radicalization of the US labor movement. The next version was MacArthism in the first decade of the Cold War. The film serves to expand state power and lift public freedoms.
The anti-Israel student manifestations of 2024 played instrumental role in Trump’s electoral triumph. Most participants react with horror of the indiscriminate bombings Israeli in. Their leaders, however, raised flags that echo the strategy of. “Free from Rio to the Sea”, the perennial motto, and celebratory images of the attacks of 7 October, described as “Palestinians coming home,” added to the pervasive acts of intimidation against Jewish students and teachers. The Democratic Party was seen as a partner of anti -Semitic language because its left wing greeted the protests.
According to the government’s accusations, Khalil would have conducted activities “aligned with Hamas, an organization designated as a terrorist.” Red Panic, part 3, aims at word crimes, ignoring the first amendment of the US Constitution.
The US is not Brazil. Here, a navigating judge, supported by his peers, in gray bands of the law to suppress social networks accused of “hate speeches,” “undemocratic speeches” or “disinformation.” There, the first amendment ensures a freedom of expression limited only by the so -called right to exercise violence. The heads and anti -Semitic images used in Columbia are abominable, but are covered by the constitutional cloak. Khalil did not commit any crime.
It seems that, when ordering the arrest, the government was unaware of the status of Khalil, a Palestinian holder of permanent residence (Green Card). Even so, Trump insists on deportation: “We will arrest and deport from our country these supporters of terrorism – never return again!” Meanwhile, his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, Brandia an extreme interpretation of the immigration and nationality law by which Khalil would be deportable for threatening the US “national security interests”.
“” Trump proclaimed. In the original version of the red panic, the young J. Edgar Hoover led the deportations of hundreds of workers’ movement activists who were permanent residence immigrants. Later, in 1952, as director of the FBI during MacArthism, Hoover obtained the Supreme Court the deportation authorization of three resident immigrants who had joined the tiny US Communist Party.
The connection between and ideological persecution is not new. Khalil’s case was designed to alert to the 13 million Green Card holders, plus 1.5 million foreign teachers and students with valid visas: Trump ignores the first amendment. Red Panic, part 3, as its predecessors, is a propaganda film – but in the end, what is at stake is the substance of democracy.
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