Call arrest and threatened deportation, other attacks on campus protest “grave threat to civil liberties and worker rights”
For more information contact:
Jonathan Kissam, UE Communications Director
(802) 343 1745 | jkissam@ueunion.org
The UE officers have released a statement denouncing the arrest, detainment and threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the U.S., in retaliation for his peacefully speaking out on political issues. The officers condemned this abduction, as well as other threats by the Trump administration against universities, as “serious attacks on our civil liberties” which “will impact all working people if they are not vigorously resisted.”
The statement likens the threatened deportation of Khalil to attempts to denaturalize and deport UE Director of Organization James Matles during the McCarthy period, and points out that “History has shown that a government that feels like it can get away with detaining or deporting legal residents for political speech will also be willing to arrest or deport union leaders who speak out about bad working conditions and low wages.”
The UE officers conclude, “Civil liberties are not a luxury. Indeed, as the history of the labor movement has shown, they are essential to enable working people to fight for justice. As in previous generations, if the government will not respect our civil liberties, and if the leaders of institutions and political parties will not speak up for them, then we must defend them through mass mobilization and, if necessary, strikes.”
The full statement is available on the UE website.
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