On March 8, U.S. federal agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian rights activist and legal resident. The Trump administration did not accuse him of any crime but targeted him specifically for his political speech.

In justifying the move, Trump and senior officials argued that Khalil’s arrest and deportation were enabled and justified by U.S. foreign policy and national security concerns. Legal experts have disputed those claims, and Khalil’s case is now moving through the courts.

Since then, several more students, professors and legal residents have been taken by federal agents and have had their legal statuses revoked for their political speech. Some individuals have not been seen or heard from since their disappearance. They have also not been charged with any crime.

Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid criticizes the Trump administration’s behavior and asserts that this crackdown was never about national security — it was always about silencing political dissent. Reid encourages university administrations to resist the crackdown.

The following is an excerpt from the above video:

So this is a story so surreal, so glaringly authoritarian, that if it were pitched [for] a plot line for a Netflix series, the writer’s room would be like, ‘Okay, reel it in. This is a bit much.’

Mr. Donald J. Trump, full-time collector of court dates, has issued a new demand to America’s colleges and universities: Identify the students participating in campus protests, and while you’re at it, report their nationalities, because apparently, suppressing dissent is now a group project.

Now, if you’re thinking, ‘Wait, what?’ You are not alone. This is, unfortunately, quite real. The demand came in the wake of increasing pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country. Trump, in a speech and subsequent campaign communications, essentially told university officials, ‘Hey, give us names, we want to know who these students are and whether they’re foreign nationals.’

He framed it, of course, as a matter of national security. But let’s be honest, this is less about safety and more about silencing you.