On Politically Motivated Deportations of Activists

Editorial

Mahmoud Khalil is a hero of the Palestine solidarity movement. The fact that the ultra-reactionary Donald Trump took to slandering this bright young father-to-be only confirms the fact that his activism and the organization he is a part of have been effective. For the crime of inspiring millions of students, Khalil was arrested by ICE agents and now faces the threat of deportation—this is intended to have a chilling effect, but promises the opposite. Politically motivated deportations are not new, nor are they a product of the right-wing extremists in the current administration.

On the History of Politically Motivated Deportations

Opposition to the First Imperialist World War which resulted in 300,000 men evading the draft caused panic among the ruling class and led to the ultra-reactionary policy of persecuting and deporting revolutionary and political activists. This wave of deportations was far broader than the illegal and dubious activity of Trump.

The 1918 deportations were not only limited to undocumented immigrants such as the prominent anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, but also impacted native-born citizens like comrade Eugene V. Debs who received not only a 10 year sentence in federal prison but also had his citizenship revoked due to his anti-war and socialist revolutionary activity.

The 1917 Espionage Act under which Berkman, Goldman, and Debs were convicted was a bi-partisan attack on the bourgeois democratic right to free speech, which carried decades in prison up to the death penalty. It specified the crime as “to convey information with the intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote its enemies’ success” and “to cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or to willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States.” In other words, it was illegal to oppose the senseless butchery of the war which only served the interests of the large monopoly capitalists.

The Alien Act of 1918 largely targeting the anarchists, but was broad enough in scope to attack all different forms of activists and revolutionaries, overturned the existing laws which protected undocumented people from deportations if they had been in the country for longer than 5 years. This bill, which was an act of political repression, has had a lasting effect on foreign-born people and was quickly passed with support from both reactionary imperialist parties of the ruling class. An estimated 4,000 people were deported as alleged anarchists. Suspected anarchists are still barred from becoming US citizens.

The 1919 Palmer Raids, the brainchild of the Democratic Party, were intended to smash the Industrial Workers of the World, left-wing Socialists, and the Communist Party in its infancy. Then President Woodrow Wilson of the Democratic mafia oversaw such sweeping arrests and deportations which make Trump’s efforts pale in comparison. The Palmer Raids were not without their xenophobic and racist tinge, targeting Italian, Eastern European, and Jewish immigrants accused of having leftist ties and sympathies. Over 6,000 were arrested but the controversy was substantial enough to block many deportations resulting in only 556 people being deported.

The political motivation was the same as it is today: to chill and terrify activists and reduce the number of masses willing to effect change, with the overall agenda of pushing the entire country to the far-right. The raids, however, did not accomplish their goals—the glory of the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution had reached every factory and prison with unstoppable inspiration. The General Strike in Seattle only confirmed the panic of the ruling class, and a bomb was mailed to US Attorney General Mitchel Palmer, the Democrat who orchestrated the raids. The Democrat Willson sounded every bit as hysterical and fanatical as the Republican Trump when he frantically stated that foreign-born leftists were disloyal and must be “crushed out”—such are the dark and sinister dreams of reactionaries.

Palmer, in his bloodthirsty quest to rid the country of leftists, appointed the ultra-reactionary J. Edgar Hoover to head up what would become the FBI. The new organization selected the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution to specifically target the Union of Russian Workers, arresting and badly brutalizing their members; arrests exceeded the number of warrants and 43 people in New York City alone were deported. Palmer reported to the Senate that he had painstakingly collected 60,000 names of foreign-born activists to target and petitioned for even stricter laws to allow for more.

What Do We Make of This Today?

While targeting activists for political dissent is nothing new, the difficulties Palmer faced in gathering names of those to target has been resolved by the technology and social media used by today’s activists.

While many in the monopoly media credit social media for mass protest and resistance, history renders this demonstrably false; the masses have always protested and rebelled. The encouragement of social media use for Palestinian Solidarity, most often without any advice on security precaution, generally assists the US-Israeli forces in identifying and targeting individual activists. The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and ICE routinely monitor social media to find targets, and today this is marked by the return of deportations to snuff out left-wing political dissent. The Trump administration which has demonstrated the use of ICE as a political weapon has announced that it will use Artificial Intelligence to review all foreign-born students’ social media accounts to detect and persecute “Hamas supporters.”

By Trump’s loose definition all Palestine Solidarity activists are “Hamas supporters” and this has nothing to do with the law prohibiting material support to resistance organizations the US deems “terrorists”; it even extends beyond ideological support to those who simply oppose the US-Israeli led genocide of the Palestinian people.

The dangerous pro-Democratic mafia liberal political position in the activist and student movement is certain to come in the form of opportunist and postmodern self-care which will dissuade any rebellious or militant action, even extending to chilling out civil disobedience. The liberals will shore up Trump’s scare tactics by saying that protest endangers immigrants. This will need to be overcome; the plan to scare activists into submission can only be crushed by increasing the pressure with combat and resistance.

This must be well organized; those at the most risk of deportation can lead still from the back, avoiding the most public speaking roles if they feel it is necessary, while native-born students can more than ever raise their slogans of support for the right to Palestinian Self-Determination and National Liberation by any means necessary. They can continue teaching the masses that Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, is not a “terrorist organization”, that it is only labeled one because it uses armed struggle to free Palestine. No oppressed nation anywhere in the world ever freed itself from occupation and colonization without gun-in-hand. History has proved there is no “peaceful solution.”

So What Can You Do?

Advise comrades to curate their personal social media with great caution if they are unprepared to delete them altogether; they are dangerous to casually keep around. Clear your google drives as often as possible. At demonstrations where others are masking consider doing so out of solidarity to make facial recognition and identification more difficult. Open your doors to your fellow activists whose status is questionable and who may be targeted. Create networks of safe-houses to shelter people and keep it quiet.

Most importantly, say nothing ever to the state, law enforcement, or the University administrators who collaborate with them. Support the calls to free Khalil—amplify the struggle and join in, participate in solidarity actions, sign petitions, and donate money. Above all, get organized because it is the best weapon against reaction and imperialism. Contact The Worker for how you can support and expand our work.

Image: Demonstration calling for freedom for Mahmoud Khalil in New York City

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