As chants of ‘No ICE, No KKK, No Fascist USA!’ echoed through downtown Manhattan on 10 March 2025, I spoke to a person named Richard who had been marching just ahead of me. He declined to give his last name but was eager to speak his piece.

The arrest of a recent Columbia University graduate who led pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus, and his quick transport to a Louisiana detention facility, drew a group of New Orleans students and demonstrators to rally Tuesday outside U.

During the Columbia protests, Khalil negotiated on the side of student protesters, who were lobbying the university to divest from its ties to Israel. In a news release, a top official with the ACLU called the detention of Khalil, a green card holder, “unprecedented, illegal, and un-American.”