This week, Rashida Tlaib led 13 of her colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to send a letter to the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) demanding Mahmoud Khalil’s immediate release from DHS custody.

The Congressional signers are, in alphabetical order: Andre Carson, Jasmine Crockett, Al Green, Summer Lee, James P. McGovern, Gwen S. Moore, Ilhan Omar, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Delia Ramirez, Lateefah Simon, Rashida Tlaib, Nydia M. Valázquez, and Nikema Williams.

Mahmoud, a legal permanent resident of the United States who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, has constitutional rights to free speech and due process—rights which the Trump administration has violated in actions that the American Civil Liberties Union calls “unprecedented.”

Criminalizing protest is not only intended to silence the U.S. solidarity movement with Palestine, but is also a threat to democracy and to all Americans who dare to speak out against our government. In a New York Times article titled, “This is the greatest threat to free speech since the Red Scare,” Michelle Goldberg writes: "a government this willing to disregard the First Amendment is a danger to us all."

We must speak up and resist this authoritarian, lawless abuse of power together.

Please add your name to join Rashida Tlaib and her colleagues in Congress demanding the immediate release of political prisoner Mahmoud Khalil, and the immediate reinstatement of his green card. He should be back home safely with his wife, a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant with their child.