First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

Throughout history, political regimes have silenced, imprisoned, or killed educators, intellectuals, and students for daring to challenge power. From the Soviet Union’s Great Purge to Pinochet’s brutal crackdown on Chilean universities, from Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jewish professors to the Khmer Rouge’s mass executions of intellectuals, universities have long been battlegrounds for ideological warfare.

And now, this pattern is unfolding in the United States.

Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old Columbia University student and permanent U.S. resident of Palestinian descent, was arrested at his university residence for his pro-Palestinian activism. He has not been charged with a crime, yet he has been transferred to an immigration detention facility in Louisiana, a well-documented black hole of due process and human rights abuses.

His wife, an American citizen, is due to give birth next month, but Khalil has been torn from his home and community. His lawyers have pleaded for bail, arguing that he is not a flight risk, yet the system that has swallowed him is not just about law enforcement—it is about political repression and profit-driven incarceration.

This is not an isolated case. Politicians are openly calling for the deportation of pro-Palestinian protesters. If they can disappear Khalil, what’s stopping them from disappearing professors, journalists, union organizers, or anyone else who challenges the status quo?

History shows us that crackdowns on educators are never about safety or stability—they are about power.

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Historical Precedents: When Regimes Targeted Educators

The attack on academic freedom is not new. Repressive governments throughout history have targeted professors, students, and intellectuals, seeing them as threats to state control and political conformity.

• Argentina’s Dirty War (1976–1983): The military junta led by Jorge Videla kidnapped, tortured, and executed university professors who were seen as leftist sympathizers. Many were part of the 30,000+ people who were “disappeared.”
• Brazil under the Military Dictatorship (1964–1985): University professors, students, and intellectuals suspected of leftist sympathies were surveilled, arrested, tortured, and exiled. The regime severely restricted academic freedom, enforcing strict censorship to align universities with military ideology. Some professors, such as Ana Rosa Kucinski and Luiz Ignácio Maranhão Filho, were among those who were “disappeared” by the state, while leading intellectuals like Darcy Ribeiro, Paulo Freire, and Anísio Teixeira were persecuted, exiled, or had their work suppressed. Freire was imprisoned and later exiled for his literacy programs, Ribeiro was forced to leave the country, and Teixeira’s 1971 death is widely believed to have been an assassination.Students at the University of São Paulo and other institutions became targets of repression, with many imprisoned, tortured, or exiled, leaving lasting scars on Brazil’s education system and stifling intellectual freedom for decades.
• Chile under Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990): After overthrowing President Salvador Allende, Pinochet purged universities of leftist faculty and students. Victor Jara, a university professor and musician, was tortured and executed in a stadium.
• The Soviet Union under Stalin (1920s–1953): Stalin’s purges targeted educators and intellectuals. Thousands of professors were executed, imprisoned in gulags, or disappeared, particularly during the Great Purge (1936–1938).
• Cambodia under Pol Pot (1975–1979): Intellectuals, including university professors, were considered enemies of the Khmer Rouge regime. Merely wearing glasses or speaking a foreign language was often a death sentence.
• C_hina’s Cultural Revolution (1966–1976): Under M_ao Z_edong, professors were publicly humiliated, beaten, and sent to labor camps, while universities were shut down. The R_ed G_uards destroyed books and purged intellectuals to enforce ideological conformity.
• Iran under the Islamic Republic (Post-1979): The “Cultural Revolution” of the 1980s led to the imprisonment, exile, and execution of many professors deemed too “Western” or critical of the regime.
• Nazi Germany (1933–1945): Jewish, socialist, and dissenting academics were expelled from universities, arrested, or sent to concentration camps. Albert Einstein and many others fled before they could be targeted.
• Spain under Francisco Franco (1939–1975): Professors who supported the Spanish Republic were arrested, executed, or exiled. Universities were tightly controlled to suppress anti-fascist thought.

In every case, the attack on intellectuals was not about national security—it was about silencing dissent and consolidating power.

And now, it is happening again.

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Profiting from Repression: The Role of Private Prisons

Mahmoud Khalil was not placed in just any jail—he was sent to a for-profit detention center, part of a vast industry that turns incarceration into billions of dollars in revenue.

According to the ACLU, 90.8% of people in ICE detention are held in private prisons. (ACLU)

The companies profiting from this system include:

• GEO Group – A massive private prison corporation that donated over $500,000 to a pro-Trump Super PAC in February 2023.
• CoreCivic – Another prison corporation that donated $500,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee.
• Management & Training Corporation (MTC) – A lesser-known private prison company with a long history of abuse allegations.

These companies lobby politicians to expand detention policies because their profit model depends on filling beds. The more people are detained, the more money they make.

Khalil’s case is not just a political crackdown—it is also a business opportunity.

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What You Can Do: Preparing for Political Repression

If history has taught us anything, it is that repression does not stop with the first few targets.

The first to be taken are often students, activists, immigrants, or those on the political margins. But as a regime’s control grows, professors, journalists, and ordinary citizens become the next targets.

If they can detain Khalil without charges, what’s stopping them from coming for anyone else?

1. Have a Plan with Your Family and Friends

If you or someone you know is politically active, prepare for the possibility of being detained or disappeared.

• Create a communication plan – Who should your family contact first if you are detained?
• Memorize or write down lawyer contacts – Have an immigration or civil rights attorney’s phone number saved on paper.
• Decide on a public statement – If you are detained, your family should know what to say to the press and how to organize public pressure.

2. Know Your Rights

• Remain silent if detained. Demand a lawyer.
• Never sign anything without legal representation.
• If attending a protest, tell someone your location and check in.

3. Expose the Financial Profiteers

• Boycott private prison corporations – Do not invest in GEO Group, CoreCivic, or companies that support them.
• Expose their political donations – Who are they funding? How do their policies align with repression?
• Demand divestment – Many universities, pension funds, and local governments are financially linked to private prisons.

4. Organize and Mobilize

• Support detained activists.
• Join civil rights organizations fighting against private prisons and political repression.
• Hold politicians accountable.

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If We Do Nothing, We Know How This Ends

The attack on academic freedom is a warning. The criminalization of dissent, the weaponization of immigration laws, and the profit-driven detention system are laying the groundwork for a larger, promised crackdown.

And history tells us that when people are disappeared, governments always lie about why.

They will tell you that the professor, the journalist, the student—the friend, the colleague, the neighbor—was a threat. They will say that they were dangerous, that their detention was for your safety, that they had to be removed for the good of the country.

Do not believe the lies.

Believe in the person you know.

Believe in their character, their integrity, their humanity.

Because repression always wears the mask of “law and order.” The people in power will not tell you that they are silencing voices of truth—they will tell you that they are stopping criminals, extremists, or agitators.

This is how it happens, every time, in every place where authoritarianistic ideas take root.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned us of this danger when he said:

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Silence is complicity. When we refuse to speak out against repression, we allow it to spread.

If we do not resist now—if we do not demand justice for Mahmoud Khalil and countless others—we will soon find that there is no one left to resist at all.

History warns us where this road leads.

Mahmoud Khalil’s case is not just about one student—it is about whether we will resist before it is too late.

Or will we watch history repeat itself?