Unidos Nos Mantenemos, Divididos Caemos (Why We Must Stand Together)
Unidos Nos Mantenemos, Divididos Caemos (Why We Must Stand Together)
March, 26, 2025
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In recent months, Donald Trump’s administration has escalated its crackdown on immigrants and political dissidents, detaining activists and deporting innocent people under dubious pretences. This paper will examine the case of Mahmoud Khalil and how it can be compared to Nazi Germany, the broader treatment of Latinos in America as well as student actions in universities. These cases will show the state of urgency we have found ourselves in, and why we must collectively assemble to protect each other.
First, the most famous case is Mahmoud Khalil. Immigration Control Enforcement arrested Mahmoud on Saturday, March 6th 2025. They described his crime as; “Led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization”(1). This is a violation on Khalil’s democratic rights, as he was a permanent resident of the United States and therefore had the constitutional right to both peaceful protest and freedom of speech. If we want to look at this with a philosophical lens, Rousseau famously said that “man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.” If we are born both free and with the ability to intellectually reason to create a better world for ourselves, we must continue to use our ability to, and fight the people who would take it away such as Donald Trump. Donald Trump did not agree with Mahmoud, because of this he was accused of being aligned with Hamas and sent to jail in Louisiana - a clear violation of his rights. What has happened to Mahmoud since his arrest? Well, to hear from Khalil himself; “My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law. Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn’t the 21-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing. Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities”(2). This letter is what inspired my writing of this essay. As an 18 year old Canadian, not under the threat of being deported to a brutal El Salvadorian prison, I can acknowledge that I am in a privileged position when it comes to writing these essays. That is why when I read that letter, I am struck by the pure bravery that Khalil represents, as well as the Palestinian people, who still have faith in humanity (3). Khalil does not write his letter in self pity or a plead for mercy, instead he uses his letter to paint the picture of the horrific system that is leaving innocent people to rot in jail for the sole crime of not being born in a developed country. Khalil is still currently fighting deportation efforts made by the American government. His case is incredibly important, and as such I want to bring up an eerie parallel from history. When Hitler rose to power, one of his first moves was to stage a fire that destroyed the Reichstag. After this fire, Hitler was quick to falsely accuse senior communist leaders of causing the fire: “Anti-Nazi politicians and union workers either fled Germany or faced long-term confinement in a concentration camp. Ernst Thälmann, leader of the German Communist party since 1925 and one-time candidate for the German presidency, for example, had been arrested after the fire that destroyed the German parliament building in 1933. He spent more than 11 years in the camps. The SS killed him in Buchenwald concentration camp on August 18, 1944” (4). Much like Trump, who accused Khalil of being aligned with Hamas and detained him months into his presidency. Palestinians have rightfully been protesting his imprisonment, something I believe we all must be disgusted by, but it seems that other groups are not necessarily as active, as they should be, such as Latinos in both the United States and more importantly world wide, when it comes to Trumps detainments.
When Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with El Salvador's president to reach an agreement to hold Tren de Aragua gang members, he gleefully announced :“We sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salavdor has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars” (5). To remain objective, it is an undeniable victory for the United States to deport these violent gang members from their streets. The issue arises when both the United States andEl Salavdor fail to do their legal due diligence when it comes to deportation. Trump's administration has deported working residents of the United States for the most absurd reasons, such as: “ A Venezuelan professional soccer player and youth coach said U.S. officials had wrongly labeled him a gang member based on a tattoo of a crown meant to reference his favorite team, Real Madrid”(6). Many family members of the deported Venezuelans are denying these gang affiliations, and although this is the family’s word against Trump's word, without proper due diligence we will never know who is right. The example of the soccer player who has dedicated his life to being a high level athlete, as well as providing American children with soccer education is especially damning. Why should he be deported to an El Salvadorion prison, to rot, for the sole reason that his tattoo looks like a gang tattoo? This raises ethical concerns that should trouble anyone committed to justice. Because if the government has the right to send you to prison, solely because of a tattoo, then they are not going to stop just with him. Countless hardworking people are going to be caught up in legal battles to stay in a country that they recognize as their home, a country that they fight and provide for as if it was their home, based solely on the fact that they are seen as “others”. Trump, has already started to detain both Latinos and protestors like Mahmoud at an alarming rate. If they can go for permanent residents, what is to say they will not go for citizens they disagree with as well? This environment around me reminds me of Pastor Martin Niemöller famous poem First They Came which goes goes:
“First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.” (7). That poem perfectly shapes our current situation. If we do not begin to stick up for our Palestinian brothers and sisters, our Latino brothers and sisters, we will reach a point where there is no one left to stick up for each other. We must ensure as a collective that we are looking out for the best of our community, since just because it is not you today, does not mean it cannot be you tomorrow.
Now, what can be done? Oftentimes people will say that it is not their homeland, and because of that, they do not have anything to do about it. First, we can not have mistaken values in trying times like these, such as Organizations for Latin American students or OLAS, at my university, Mcmaster University. Clubs like OLAS constantly talk about how they. “Provide voices for Latino students”, but instead spend a night further dividing us, instead of uniting us towards our common goals. Talking about how to “decolonize the Spanish language” (8). I have a particular issue with that, as virtue signalling in trying times like today is one of the most dangerous things we can do. The OLAS has not put up a single post condemning Donald Trumps, mass deportations and maltreatment of Latinos in the United States, but instead thinks its necessary to put up their tenth post about some new niche study. Although these studies can be useful in certain aspects, they are useless to the pressing circumstances surrounding our current environment (9). Due to this, there are two simple solutions to the problem of OLAS. The OLAS can do something useful, and condemn the treatment of Latin Americans in the United States using their platform, or someone else must establish a platform to do that same thing, instead of distracting us with new problems. With this new OLAS or platform, I am not necessarily calling for drastic change, I am just asking for some action. Protests should happen, but they are undeinably more difficult but the fact that fundraisers, call for actions and petitons have not be started by the club to protect our Latinos facing maltreatment in the United States is Absurd.
This type of protest is nothing new at Mcmaster or university campuses. Mcmaster students were extremely active when it came to protesting against apartheid in South Africa. “McMaster students, as usual, were on the front lines of these demonstrations. In 1986, six years before Nelson Mandela would be elected President of South Africa, Mac students voted in a referendum to support anti-apartheid boycotts. This brought upon lots of resistance from the McMaster Board of Governors at the time” (10). We must, do what students before us have already done, and protest/ fight injustices around the world. The OLAS has failed us, because let alone that they have not fought the injustices, they have yet to acknowledge that they are happening. Furthermore, it does not matter if you are South African, Latino or Palestinian, if we let each other's right be violated, we are letting our own rights be violated.
As established, this is not a time for empty virtue signals, instead it is a time for action, something that I believe Palestinian students/ supporters have been doing an excellent job of. Whenever there is a protest on campus, you will have someone ask you “Alec, what are they trying to achieve?” Well, to put it simply, they are trying to not go down without a fight, something that up to this point, I feel my community has not been able to do. Latinos are a community that are fierce, hardworking, tenacious, and most of all kind. We have the ability to stand up for our rights, so we must exercise them. We must put in the hard work that is protesting, we must organise to fundraise for the legal funds of our compatriots, we all must be willing to fight like the brave Mahmoud Khalil, because if we do not fight today, there will be no tomorrow to fight for. As people, we are all being oppressed greatly by common enemies - capitalism, imperialism and fascism. Because of that, it is vital that neither Latinos or Palestinians, or any other oppressed group protest alone, but instead work together as well as fundraise, a lot of people love our (Latinos) food, we have the chance to do a simple sale to help with legal fees. Write petitions, to let Latinos in the United States that they are not alone and that we both feel their pain, and want to help them through it, but most importantly we must make our voices heard. Because we must not only acknowledge oppression but actively fight it, both at Mcmaster and beyond.
References
Cohen, Luc. “Nazis Were Treated Better than Venezuelans Deported by Trump, Judge Says at Hearing .” Reuters, March 24, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/legal/judge-rejects-trump-administration-request-end-block-some-deportations-2025-03-24/.
Divest, McMaster. “ A History of the Divest Movement: McMaster’s Apartheid Non-Action.” Medium, February 8, 2022. https://medium.com/@macdivest/a-history-of-the-divest-movement-mcmasters-apartheid-non-action-862e0d790406#:~:text=McMaster%20students%2C%20as%20usual%2C%20were,of%20Governors%20at%20the%20time.
Hockenos, Matthew D., and Martin Niemöller. Then they came for me: Martin Niemöller, the pastor who defied the Nazis. New York: Basic Books, 2018.
Khalil, Mahmoud. “A Letter from Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil: ACLU.” American Civil Liberties Union, March 20, 2025. https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/a-letter-from-palestinian-activist-mahmoud-khalil.
Offenhartz, Jake. “Immigration Agents Arrest Palestinian Activist Who Helped Lead Columbia University Protests.” AP News, March 10, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-15014bcbb921f21a9f704d5acdcae7a8.
“Politcal Prisoners.” United States holocaust memorial museum. Accessed March 25, 2025. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/political-prisoners.
Riccardi, Nicholas, and Regina Garcia Cano. “Trump Administration Deports Hundreds of Immigrants Even as a Judge Orders Their Removals Be Stopped.” AP News, March 17, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/trump-venezuela-el-salvador-immigration-dd4f61999f85c4dd8bcaba7d4fc7c9af.
Footnotes
1.) Jake Offenhartz, “Immigration Agents Arrest Palestinian Activist Who Helped Lead Columbia University Protests,” AP News, March 10, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-15014bcbb921f21a9f704d5acdcae7a8.
2.) Mahmoud Khalil, “A Letter from Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil: ACLU,” American Civil Liberties Union, March 20, 2025, https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/a-letter-from-palestinian-activist-mahmoud-khalil.
3) My friend Eddie recently got in contact with a Palestinian family in Gaza, and gathered donations for them. What left me most in awe was their ability to thank us, and call us brave for helping them, showing their faith in humanity is still, somehow there.
4.) “Political Prisoners,” United States holocaust memorial museum, accessed March 25, 2025, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/political-prisoners.
5.)Riccardi, Nicholas, and Regina Garcia Cano. “Trump Administration Deports Hundreds of Immigrants Even as a Judge Orders Their Removals Be Stopped.” AP News, March 17, 2025.
6.) Luc Cohen, “Nazis Were Treated Better than Venezuelans Deported by Trump, Judge Says at Hearing ,” Reuters, March 24, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/legal/judge-rejects-trump-administration-request-end-block-some-deportations-2025-03-24/.
7.) 1. Matthew D. Hockenos and Martin Niemöller, Then They Came for Me: Martin Niemöller, the Pastor Who Defied the Nazis (New York: Basic Books, 2018).
8.) On March 25th, 2025 the OLAS hosted a panel of intellectuals talking about the idea of “decolonizing the Spanish language.” Although this can be interesting to some people, it strikes me as a mistake that the OLAS has regularly hosted events like these instead of focusing on the real issues facing Latinos students at Mcmaster and abroad.
9.) I believe it is important to acknowledge that OLAS is based at Mcmaster which is in Hamilton Ontario not the United States. Regardless, I believe it is ridiculous that they have not had the Brain and/ or Spine, to do what is right and use their platform properly.
10.) McMaster Divest, “A History of the Divest Movement: McMaster’s Apartheid Non-Action,” Medium, February 8, 2022, https://medium.com/@macdivest/a-history-of-the-divest-movement-mcmasters-apartheid-non-action-862e0d790406#:~:text=McMaster%20students%2C%20as%20usual%2C%20were,of%20Governors%20at%20the%20time.