US protests 2011-26

My assessment of the almost inestimably important case of Mahmoud Khalil, the legal US resident abducted on March 8 and taken to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana for deportation. Targeted for his involvement in student protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza at Columbia University, Khalil’s abduction and his intended deportation are a glaring example of the Trump administration’s intention to shred the First Amendment to support Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza, although they are framing it as a “national security” matter. The Secretary of State, the pliant and dim-witted Marco Rubio, seeks to justify Khalil’s deportation by invoking a barely-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952, which gives him the authority to deport non-citizens if he has “reasonable ground to believe that [their] presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” If successful, the Trump administration will be able to deport any green card holder or visa holder who has engaged in any kind of non-violent opposition to Israel’s genocide, a startling development which would not only formally make the US into a dictatorship, in which freedom of speech (or even thought) is not allowed; it would also do so in the service of a foreign country, Israel. This is a position that, as I describe it, “lays bare how the Trump administration, like the Biden administration before it, prioritizes Israel’s interests over its own, in what really ought to be seen as a betrayal of America’s self-interest — or even as an act of treason.” Although an immigration judge rubber-stamped Khalil’s deportation on Friday, a legal challenge is ongoing in federal court in New Jersey, and we must all hope that it is successful, although it seems certain that it will be a protracted process that will last for many years. Its importance, however, cannot be underestimated. As I say, “It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of the US depends on it.”

Photos from, and my report about the coordinated monthly global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and in London and Brussels on April 2, 2025. The “First Wednesday” vigils have been taking place on the first Wednesday of every month for more than two years, and are, of course, continuing under Donald Trump, after he has cynically, cruelly and illegally decided to use the prison to hold migrants as part of the racist “war on migrants” that he declared when he took office.

Photos from, and my report about the coordinated monthly global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and in London, Brussels and Mexico City on March 5, 2025. The “First Wednesday” vigils have been taking place on the first Wednesday of every month for the last two years, and are, of course, continuing under Donald Trump, after he has cynically, cruelly and illegally decided to use the prison to hold migrants as part of the racist “war on migrants” that he declared when he took office.

Photos from, and my report about the coordinated monthly global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and in London, Brussels and Mexico City on February 5, 2025, and the week after. The vigils have been taking place on the first Wednesday of every month for the last two years, and will continue under Donald Trump, especially as he has now shocked the world by illegally sending migrants to the prison as part of the vile “war on migrants” that he launched when he took office.

Photos from, and my report about the vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and in London on January 11, 2025, the truly shameful 23rd anniversary of the opening of the prison. Most of those involved are part of the coordinated monthly global vigils that have been taking place on the first Wednesday of every month for the last two years, and which will continue under Donald Trump. With 15 men recently released, the vigils involved a huge sense of relief that Biden had finally taken action after 20 months in which no prisoners were freed, but 15 men still remain, all held in what I describe as “varying states of lawlessness.”

Publicizing the imminent 23rd anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, on January 11, marked by vigils taking place across the US and around the world, as well as the Close Guantánamo campaign’s ongoing photo campaign, marking 8,400 days of the prison’s existence on January 9. I also stress the urgent need for the Biden administration to resettle 14 men long approved for release before leaving office. in just 13 days’ time. If they’re not freed, they’ll be entombed at Guantánamo for another four years under Donald Trump.

Photos from, and my report about the ten monthly coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on December 4, 2024. These vigils — the 23rd — marked the last opportunity for campaigners to urge President Biden to urgently implement a resettlement plan for the 16 men (out of the 30 still held) who have long been approved for release. The next vigils will move, for one month only, from the first Wednesday of every month to Saturday January 11, 2025, marking the 23rd anniversary of the prison’s opening, and will resume on the first Wednesday of every month on Wednesday February 5.

Photos from, and my report about the nine monthly coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on November 6, 2024, the day after the US Presidential Election that, alarmingly, will see Donald Trump reinstalled in the White House on January 20. It was a difficult day, of course, although it sharpened all our realizations that now President Biden has no more excuses for inaction, as he has just two months left to salvage something of a legacy on Guantánamo by finding new homes for the 16 men long approved for release who are still held.

Photos from, and my report about the nine global monthly coordinated vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on October 2, 2024, the last vigils before the Presidential Election on November 5. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next date is November 6, the day after the election, when I urge people to turn out to demand the release of prisoners before the end of the Biden presidency.

Photos from, and my report about the eleven global monthly coordinated vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on September 4, 2024. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next date is October 2.