- Editorial Board
- Mar 19, 2025 (DailyCal.org)
Early last week, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate and leader of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, was arrested by immigration officers and sent to a detention center in Louisiana.
The government has provided no evidence as to why Khalil — a green-card holder married to an American citizen — was detained. Instead, it claimed his activities “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” and alleged that Khalil supports Hamas, which his legal team denies.
Khalil’s story has become the face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters — really, a crackdown on free speech.
The exercise of student protest is fundamental to our campus’s history, from more than 60 years ago, through last spring, to this past week: Hundreds gathered on Sproul Plaza in response to Khalil’s detainment, calling for the protection of their free speech. More than a hundred Jewish Berkeley professors signed a statement condemning the tactic of deporting protesters for expressing their views.
Khalil’s arrest — which is an abuse of immigration status to suppress speech that opposes the government — is blatantly unconstitutional.
While the federal government’s decision to detain Khalil has resulted in widespread outrage, Columbia University’s administration is succumbing to pressure from Washington. Under federal investigation into alleged antisemitism on campus, which UC Berkeley also faces, Columbia recently issued multiple suspensions, revocations and expulsions of students involved in the pro-Palestinian occupation of a building at the university last spring.
With the Trump administration holding a $400 million cut in funding over their heads, Columbia’s leaders now face the impossible decision of whether or not to bow down to government mandates that demand harsh punitive measures against demonstrators.
Columbia is an important case. It sends a clear message that academic institutions are having to choose between their students and their survival, and sets a dangerous precedent exemplifying the threat to free speech. It’s a threat that public and federally funded research universities across the country, including UC Berkeley, can’t ignore.
While the Trump administration’s crackdown is worrying, it should not be paralyzing. UC Berkeley has a responsibility to protect its students and, as a public institution, uphold the right to free speech. The constitutional right to assembly is essential to a democracy. Forsaking this right would be a betrayal of the students under the institution’s care.
The university must follow the law and its own enshrined bylaws to protect students’ information and right to protest. Campus should always be a space where students can voice dissent and challenge institutions without fear of retaliation, detainment or deportation.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the editorial board as written by the spring 2025 opinion editor, Amara McEvoy.
