The Labor Movement Should Stand Up for Mahmoud Khalil
Unions have a moral imperative to defend against illegal attacks on political speech. That means demanding justice for Mahmoud Khalil.
Jimmy Williams Jr.
If you’ve spent any time around the labor movement, you’ve probably heard the saying: “an injury to one is an injury to all.” This is a core principle of our movement, not just because we care for our brothers and sisters, but because we know that if we let those in power come for one of us, the rest of us are next.
On March 8, Mahmoud Khalil was forcibly removed from his home — in front of his pregnant wife, a U.S. citizen — by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A legal resident with a green card, Mr. Khalil was targeted by the Trump administration because of his role in the protests against Israel’s war on Gaza that erupted across U.S. universities last year. Mr. Khalil has unfortunately joined a long list of labor leaders, civil rights activists, and other organizers who, over the course of U.S. history, have been detained, jailed or even killed for their speech. The labor movement has an important role to play right now in standing up against this illegal detention and defending the constitutionally-protected right to protest.
Labor unions have a long history of brave men and women speaking out against government repression. When my union was barely 30 years old, in 1918, labor leader Eugene Debs famously gave a speech against the Woodrow Wilson administration, World War I, and the military draft, dubbed the Canton, Ohio Speech. In the speech, Debs said that “if it had not been for the men and women who, in the past, have had the moral courage to go to jail, we would still be in the jungles.” Just like the leaders he spoke of, he too was jailed for a decade as a result of the speech.
Around the same time, workers across West Virginia stood in open combat with our government as they tried to unionize. Federal agents, the U.S. military, and private detectives of the Baldwin-Felts agency battled union coal miners for nearly a decade. Over 500 miners and labor activists were convicted of crimes ranging from murder to insurrection and treason following what became known as the Battle of Blair Mountain.
In the 1930s, another famous labor leader, Harry Bridges of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, was persecuted by our government in response to his political beliefs and militant labor actions along the West Coast ports. Because of his alleged former Communist Party membership, the U.S. government sought to deport him under the Immigration Act of 1918. The persecution of Bridges led to him being convicted of fraud and perjury; ultimately, his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953.
The Civil Rights Movement, which is now viewed as morally righteous, was broadly unpopular at the time — in 1963, 60% of Americans had an unfavorable view of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington. Countless organizers and activists were beaten, jailed and persecuted for their involvement working toward racial justice. They faced these attacks for standing on the right side of history, because they were unafraid and refused to back down.
As General President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, I lead 140,000 members in the U.S. and Canada, and I have a duty to represent them to the best of my ability — which means fighting for their interests in any way that I can. Our members are not just painters, glaziers, floor coverers, and drywall finishers — they are parents, community members, people of color and immigrants. They live entire lives outside of their workplaces, and while we don’t all agree on every single issue, it’s my job as their elected leader to stand up for what’s right.
I was proud that my union was among the first to call for a ceasefire in Gaza; and that we organize and defend undocumented workers, and fight for comprehensive immigration reform. The IUPAT will continue to support the Black Lives Matter movement, even if President Trump calls it a “symbol of hate.”
Mr. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate, has still not been charged with any crime, yet the Trump administration has detained him and denied his full legal rights to counsel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X that the administration is seeking to deport him because they disagree with his stance on Israel and Palestine — and because he took action alongside our brothers and sisters in the United Auto Workers to speak out against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
If engaging in speech that the administration disagrees with allows our government to do this to someone with a legal right to live and work here, it is not out of the realm of possibility to imagine further encroachments on U.S. citizens’ right to protest. You don’t need to agree with my view on the destruction of Mr. Kahlil’s homeland of Palestine to see that he is being punished for political speech. Even when positions are divisive, they should never be used as a weapon to roll back our basic rights.
From what I can tell, Mahmoud Khalil has moral courage of the type Eugene Debs spoke about more than a century ago in a speech that he was unjustly arrested for. The labor movement has a moral imperative, as well as a self interest, to rally behind Mahmoud Khalil.
Some may think that if we keep our heads down, don’t cause trouble, and get out of the way, we’ll somehow stay under the Trump administration’s radar. This is a big mistake. I often think back to the striking air traffic controllers in 1981. Their union had endorsed President Ronald Reagan, and hoped that would help them get a favorable outcome to their strike. Instead they were targeted and fired. Our opponents have an ideological commitment to ending the labor movement, and any efforts that allow them to stifle dissent and organizing have to be met with forceful pushback.
You can’t be neutral on a moving train. Working people across our country should see Mr. Khalil’s detainment for what it is: an attempt to silence our voices, roll back our individual liberties and diminish our collective power. We must resist these attacks on our fundamental freedoms with every tool at our disposal. I believe this moment is a clarion call for the labor movement: We must stand up for Mahmoud Khalil.
Jimmy Williams Jr. is president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, representing over 140,000 active and retired craftspeople in the United States and Canada.
