I am outraged by the Trump administration’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil. Mr. Kahlil, a holder of a valid green card, married to an American citizen, was arrested by ICE agents in his home. His “crime”?  Violating President Trump’s executive order prohibiting antisemitism. Not by acts of violence or destruction, but by participating in protests about Gaza. The ICE agents even threatened to arrest Mrs. Kahlil when they entered the Kahlils’ home.

Mr. Kahlil has not violated any laws. Executive orders do not create laws. Mr. Kahlil is entitled to express his opinions, as guaranteed by the First Amendment. This right applies, as we have heard many times, to speech we disagree with or even find abhorrent. We have heard, from the president and others, that the attacks on Jan. 6, 2021, were not criminal acts but rather the exercise of free speech and legitimate political protest. Yet Mr. Kahlil has been arrested.

When Mr. Kahlil’s wife, who is eight months pregnant, tried to visit him in the New Jersey detention center at which he was supposedly held, she was told “he wasn’t there.” We have now learned he has been transferred to Louisiana! Why, except to further isolate and intimidate him and others like him.

Is this the America we believe in? Should people who express opinions different from ours be subject to sudden arrest in the middle of the night, taken from their homes? Whisked away to unnamed locations, denied access to counsel and their families?

James Mills
Ogunquit