
Many Americans are witnessing immigration arrests for the first time and reacting
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Adam Greenfield was home nursing a cold when his girlfriend raced in to tell him Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles were pulling up in their trendy San Diego neighborhood.
The author and podcast producer grabbed his iPhone and bolted out the door barefoot, joining a handful of neighbors recording masked agents raiding a popular Italian restaurant nearby, as they yelled at the officers to leave. An hour later, the crowd had grown to nearly 75 people, with many in front of the agents' vehicles.
"I couldn't stay silent," Greenfield said. "It was literally outside of my front door."
More Americans are witnessing people being hauled off as they shop, exercise at the gym, dine out and otherwise go about their daily lives as President Donald Trump's administration aggressively works to increase immigration arrests. As the raids touch the lives of people who aren't immigrants themselves, many Americans who rarely, if ever, participated in civil disobedience are rushing out to record the actions on their phones and launch impromptu protests.
Arrests are being made outside gyms, busy restaurants
Greenfield said on the evening of the May 30 raid, the crowd included grandparents, retired military members, hippies, and restaurant patrons arriving for date night. Authorities threw flash bangs to force the crowd back and then drove off with four detained workers, he said.
"To do this, at 5 o'clock, right at the dinner rush, right on a busy intersection with multiple restaurants, they were trying to make a statement," Greenfield said. "But I don't know if their intended point is getting across the way they want it to. I think it is sparking more backlash."
Previously, many arrests happened late at night or in the pre-dawn hours by agents waiting outside people's homes as they left for work or outside their work sites when they finished their day. When ICE raided another popular restaurant in San Diego in 2008, agents did it in the early morning without incident.
White House border czar Tom Homan has said agents are being forced to make more arrests in communities because of sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with ICE in certain cities and states. ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide but seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody.
Vice President JD Vance, during a visit to Los Angeles on Friday, said those policies have given agents "a bit of a morale problem because they've had the local government in this community tell them that they're not allowed to do their job."
"When that Border Patrol agent goes out to do their job, they said within 15 minutes they have protesters, sometimes violent protesters who are in their face obstructing them," he said.
'It was like a scene out of a movie'
Melyssa Rivas had just arrived at her office in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California one morning last week when she heard the frightened screams of young women. She went outside to find the women confronting nearly a dozen masked federal agents who had surrounded a man kneeling on the pavement.
"It was like a scene out of a movie," Rivas said. "They all had their faces covered and were standing over this man who was clearly traumatized. And there are these young girls screaming at the top of their lungs."
As Rivas began recording the interaction, a growing group of neighbors shouted at the agents to leave the man alone. They eventually drove off in vehicles, without detaining him, video shows.
Rivas spoke to the man afterward, who told her the agents had arrived at the car wash where he worked that morning, then pursued him as he fled on his bicycle. It was one of several recent workplace raids in the majority-Latino city.
The same day, federal agents were seen at a Home Depot, a construction site and an LA Fitness gym. It wasn't immediately clear how many people had been detained.
"Everyone is just rattled," said Alex Frayde, an employee at LA Fitness who said he saw the agents outside the gym and stood at the entrance, ready to turn them away as another employee warned customers about the sighting. In the end, the agents never came in.
Communities protest around ICE buildings
Arrests at immigration courts and other ICE buildings have also prompted emotional scenes as masked agents have turned up to detain people going to routine appointments and hearings.
In the city of Spokane in eastern Washington state, hundreds of people rushed to protest outside an ICE building June 11 after former city councilor Ben Stuckart posted on Facebook. Stuckart wrote that he was a legal guardian of a Venezuelan asylum seeker who went to check in at the ICE building, only to be detained. His Venezuelan roommate was also detained.
Both men had permission to live and work in the U.S. temporarily under humanitarian parole, Stuckart told The Associated Press.
"I am going to sit in front of the bus," Stuckart wrote, referring to the van that was set to transport the two men to an ICE detention center in Tacoma. "The Latino community needs the rest of our community now. Not tonight, not Saturday, but right now!!!!"
The city of roughly 230,000 is the seat of Spokane County, where just over half of voters cast ballots for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Stuckart was touched to see his mother's caregiver among the demonstrators.
"She was just like, 'I'm here because I love your mom, and I love you, and if you or your friends need help, then I want to help,'" he said through tears.
By evening, the Spokane Police Department sent over 180 officers, with some using pepper balls, to disperse protesters. Over 30 people were arrested, including Stuckart who blocked the transport van with others. He was later released.
Aysha Mercer, a stay-at-home mother of three, said she is "not political in any way, shape or form." But many children in her Spokane neighborhood -- who play in her yard and jump on her trampoline -- come from immigrant families, and the thought of them being affected by deportations was "unacceptable," she said.
She said she wasn't able to go to Stuckart's protest. But she marched for the first time in her life on June 14, joining millions in "No Kings" protests across the country.
"I don't think I've ever felt as strongly as I do right this here second," she said.
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The Mainichi
10 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Many Americans are witnessing immigration arrests for the first time and reacting
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Adam Greenfield was home nursing a cold when his girlfriend raced in to tell him Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles were pulling up in their trendy San Diego neighborhood. The author and podcast producer grabbed his iPhone and bolted out the door barefoot, joining a handful of neighbors recording masked agents raiding a popular Italian restaurant nearby, as they yelled at the officers to leave. An hour later, the crowd had grown to nearly 75 people, with many in front of the agents' vehicles. "I couldn't stay silent," Greenfield said. "It was literally outside of my front door." More Americans are witnessing people being hauled off as they shop, exercise at the gym, dine out and otherwise go about their daily lives as President Donald Trump's administration aggressively works to increase immigration arrests. As the raids touch the lives of people who aren't immigrants themselves, many Americans who rarely, if ever, participated in civil disobedience are rushing out to record the actions on their phones and launch impromptu protests. Arrests are being made outside gyms, busy restaurants Greenfield said on the evening of the May 30 raid, the crowd included grandparents, retired military members, hippies, and restaurant patrons arriving for date night. Authorities threw flash bangs to force the crowd back and then drove off with four detained workers, he said. "To do this, at 5 o'clock, right at the dinner rush, right on a busy intersection with multiple restaurants, they were trying to make a statement," Greenfield said. "But I don't know if their intended point is getting across the way they want it to. I think it is sparking more backlash." Previously, many arrests happened late at night or in the pre-dawn hours by agents waiting outside people's homes as they left for work or outside their work sites when they finished their day. When ICE raided another popular restaurant in San Diego in 2008, agents did it in the early morning without incident. White House border czar Tom Homan has said agents are being forced to make more arrests in communities because of sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with ICE in certain cities and states. ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide but seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody. Vice President JD Vance, during a visit to Los Angeles on Friday, said those policies have given agents "a bit of a morale problem because they've had the local government in this community tell them that they're not allowed to do their job." "When that Border Patrol agent goes out to do their job, they said within 15 minutes they have protesters, sometimes violent protesters who are in their face obstructing them," he said. 'It was like a scene out of a movie' Melyssa Rivas had just arrived at her office in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California one morning last week when she heard the frightened screams of young women. She went outside to find the women confronting nearly a dozen masked federal agents who had surrounded a man kneeling on the pavement. "It was like a scene out of a movie," Rivas said. "They all had their faces covered and were standing over this man who was clearly traumatized. And there are these young girls screaming at the top of their lungs." As Rivas began recording the interaction, a growing group of neighbors shouted at the agents to leave the man alone. They eventually drove off in vehicles, without detaining him, video shows. Rivas spoke to the man afterward, who told her the agents had arrived at the car wash where he worked that morning, then pursued him as he fled on his bicycle. It was one of several recent workplace raids in the majority-Latino city. The same day, federal agents were seen at a Home Depot, a construction site and an LA Fitness gym. It wasn't immediately clear how many people had been detained. "Everyone is just rattled," said Alex Frayde, an employee at LA Fitness who said he saw the agents outside the gym and stood at the entrance, ready to turn them away as another employee warned customers about the sighting. In the end, the agents never came in. Communities protest around ICE buildings Arrests at immigration courts and other ICE buildings have also prompted emotional scenes as masked agents have turned up to detain people going to routine appointments and hearings. In the city of Spokane in eastern Washington state, hundreds of people rushed to protest outside an ICE building June 11 after former city councilor Ben Stuckart posted on Facebook. Stuckart wrote that he was a legal guardian of a Venezuelan asylum seeker who went to check in at the ICE building, only to be detained. His Venezuelan roommate was also detained. Both men had permission to live and work in the U.S. temporarily under humanitarian parole, Stuckart told The Associated Press. "I am going to sit in front of the bus," Stuckart wrote, referring to the van that was set to transport the two men to an ICE detention center in Tacoma. "The Latino community needs the rest of our community now. Not tonight, not Saturday, but right now!!!!" The city of roughly 230,000 is the seat of Spokane County, where just over half of voters cast ballots for Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Stuckart was touched to see his mother's caregiver among the demonstrators. "She was just like, 'I'm here because I love your mom, and I love you, and if you or your friends need help, then I want to help,'" he said through tears. By evening, the Spokane Police Department sent over 180 officers, with some using pepper balls, to disperse protesters. Over 30 people were arrested, including Stuckart who blocked the transport van with others. He was later released. Aysha Mercer, a stay-at-home mother of three, said she is "not political in any way, shape or form." But many children in her Spokane neighborhood -- who play in her yard and jump on her trampoline -- come from immigrant families, and the thought of them being affected by deportations was "unacceptable," she said. She said she wasn't able to go to Stuckart's protest. But she marched for the first time in her life on June 14, joining millions in "No Kings" protests across the country. "I don't think I've ever felt as strongly as I do right this here second," she said.


Yomiuri Shimbun
15 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
As Trump Shuts out Migrants, Spain Opens Its Doors and Fuels Economic Growth
MADRID – When night falls on the other side of the Atlantic, her 32-year-old cousin, a house cleaner in New York, huddles inside a dim basement apartment, terrified of ICE raids. But in a burgeoning quarter of the Spanish capital, where immigrant-staffed restaurants tempt newcomers with Dominican chicharrones and Venezuelan empanadas, Edith Chimbo sat in the sunlight, musing about the Spanish Dream. 'My cousin told me, 'Go to Spain'' said Chimbo, 22, who landed in Madrid earlier this year from the Ecuadorian highlands. Armed with a college degree but no work permit, she's cleaning houses under the table, just like her cousin in the United States. Yet she is counting on something in the weeks ahead that her kin almost certainly cannot: legalization. 'Here,' she said, 'we have hope.' As the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants and asylum seekers brings tear gas, protests and raids to the streets of the United States, Spain is positioning itself as a counterpoint: a new land of opportunity. In this nation of 48 million with long colonial links to the New World, an influx of predominantly Latin American immigrants is helping fuel one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. The Spanish economic transformation is unfolding as the center-left government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has streamlined immigration rules while offering legal status to roughly 700,000 irregular migrants since 2021. A landmark bill now being negotiated in the Congress of Deputies could grant legal amnesty to hundreds of thousands more – most of them Spanish-speakers from predominantly Catholic countries in Latin America. Those newcomers often enjoy visa-free travel to Spain, even as Madrid controversially works with Morocco, Mauritania and other countries to block irregular arrivals from the African coast, though Sánchez has also called for tolerance toward migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Africa. Spain's approach is attracting at least some migrants rejected or barred from the United States, including Venezuelans who are now subject to President Donald Trump's travel ban. The number of Venezuelans applying for humanitarian protection in Spain surged to 36,923 between January and May, a 36.4 percent spike from the same period last year. With no visa requirements, all Venezuelans need is a valid passport and a plane ticket. In May, the most recent period available, applicants enjoyed a 98.6 percent acceptance rate. 'My hopes and plans for the United States ended overnight,' said Alexander Salazar, 34, a Venezuelan living in Peru who found out in February that his U.S. visa, on humanitarian grounds as an LGBTQ+ migrant, had been suspended. His plan now is to join other family and friends who have already left for Spain. 'That's where my road leads,' he said by telephone from Lima. Sira Rego, a minister in Sánchez's government, said she was glad to see immigrants choosing Spain. 'It makes me feel a certain pride because it represents the kind of country we want to build: a welcoming country with rights.' Sánchez now finds his party embroiled in a political corruption scandal that has sparked calls for new elections. Still, Spanish lawmakers across the political spectrum have adopted a less demonizing approach toward immigration – at least from some countries – than many of their American and European counterparts. Even the far-right Vox party has appeared moderately welcoming of some Spanish-speaking, culturally similar immigrants from Latin America. Spain, which like most European countries has an aging population, for decades was more a source of outward emigration than a destination for immigrants. It first emerged as a tempting target for foreign job seekers during its economic boom in 2000s. More recently, it has experienced a historic post-pandemic surge, with 2.67 million people born outside the European Union arriving between 2021 and 2023 – an 85 percent increase compared with the previous three year period. Many of its immigrants, particularly from Latin America, arrive legally, either with work or student permits or as tourists, and later seek to change their status. Yet the country still harbors a hidden mass of migrants without legal permission to work. The government has no official figure of how many could be legalized under the new bill, but estimates suggest anywhere from 600,000 to 1 million. Critics point to Spain's unemployment rate – over 10 percent, the highest in the European Union, though less than half what it was a decade ago – as evidence that welcoming migrants is wrongheaded. They argue it suppresses wage growth, increases competition for Spanish workers and threatens Spanish identity. Some opinion polls also show a hardening public stance on migration. Yet the legislative amnesty push came not from a government plan but a grassroots effort backed by civil actors including small-town mayors, companies, migrant advocates and the Catholic church. Spain also has a history of normalizing irregular migrants who can prove steady work, with the last large-scale amnesty under the center-left government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2005. Should Sánchez survive the corruption crisis – and Spain's economy continue to thrive – his policies could set up this nation as the antithesis of Trump's America: a migrant-friendly progressive paradise. Under Sánchez, Spain has leaned in as few other nations to diversity, equity and inclusion. A new government rule effective May 1 compels companies with more than 50 employees to enact antidiscrimination policies protecting LGBTQ+ workers. The government is also forging a close economic relationship with Beijing, generating large-scale investment including Chinese auto giant Chery's first factory in Europe. No policy has been as transformative to Spanish society as the stance on immigration, which officials and economists say is helping to reverse population decline and boost social welfare funding at a moment when baby boomers are retiring. Immigration is also helping drive the strongest period of economic growth since Spain's construction boom in the mid-2000s. Between 2022 and 2024, average GDP per capita increased 2.9 percent – the strongest of the E.U.'s four largest economies. A report published this year by the Bank of Spain estimates that up to 25 percent of that growth was linked to the influx of foreign workers paying taxes, filling jobs, renting homes and purchasing goods and services. 'Spain is a complete anomaly, a country where the government is easing the arrival of migrants, and migrants have been absolutely existential to the dynamism of the economy,' said Gonzalo Fanjul, co-founder at porCausa Foundation, a research group on migrant issues. Experts and officials say the arrival of large numbers of Latin American immigrants, who speak Spanish and are overwhelmingly Catholic, has led to fewer societal divisions over assimilation than in countries like Sweden or Germany, which have experienced a large influx of Muslims. 'I really doubt that there is any other country in the world where migration is playing as much a role in economic growth right now as it is in Spain,' said Juan Cerruti, an Argentine émigré to Spain and now the global chief economist at Madrid-based Banco Santander. Immigrants are filling labor gaps not only in Spain's lower-wage tourism, construction and agricultural sectors, but also in the more highly skilled tech and medical sectors. In an office park on the edge of Valencia, companies such as Avantio, a digital services and software provider for the tourism industry, have leveraged Spain's streamlined immigration rules to employ foreigners and grow business. Company officials say they have turned to foreign labor for positions that otherwise might take up to a year to fill. Almost 73 percent of the company's hires in 2024 were born outside Spain, mostly in Latin America. 'We hire people from outside because we need them, we don't differentiate' based on where they are from, said Rebeca Jorge, Avantio's director of human resources. Spain has also changed its rules to help legalize the status of migrants with proof of long-term work, to ease access to work visas for new immigrants, to loosen work restrictions on student visa-holders and to simplify family reunification rules. Those simplified rules could aide Chimbo, whose mother immigrated from Ecuador to Spain a decade ago and became a citizen. Chimbo arrived on a three-month visa in April and is now applying for long-term legal status and the right to work through family reunification. She said she is confident that if that fails, the amnesty legislation could aid her. Before arriving, she considered following her cousin to the United States – a path Chimbo's father tried before being detained and deported from Texas last year. Speaking on a video phone from her dark basement apartment in a New York City suburb, her cousin Cristina said she warned Chimbo away from the United States. 'I'm afraid all the time now … whenever I'm outside, taking the bus to work … I'm afraid,' said Cristina, who is trying to apply for asylum but frets about her chances. 'I've seen the videos. I've seen what they're doing to migrants in the U.S.,' Chimbo said. 'Here, my biggest fear is Mondays, when I have to go to work.' Two hundred and twenty-five miles east of Madrid, in the orange blossom-tinged air of Valencia, men from Colombia, Ecuador, Morocco, Senegal and a host of other countries labored on crews rebuilding infrastructure and erecting new apartments following the devastating floods that hit the region in October. This year, Spain offered legal status to more than 22,000 irregular migrants in the affected area – helping populate an army of construction workers and filling other key jobs in the rebuilding effort. It was a decision driven by humanitarian concern for migrants unable to access government aid following the disaster. But it was also driven by pragmatism. 'I asked the Spanish government for this,' said José Vicente Morata, president of the Valencia Chamber of Commerce. 'We needed these people to have an identification number, the number to be able to exist in Spain. There was a bottleneck in the procedures, [and] we needed workers.' The region has now evolved into a mini-test case of Spain's legalization efforts. After the floods, Gerardo López Mateu, mayor of the nearby village of Real, struggled to find workers willing to work in the town's ongoing cleanup effort. He had four positions open – three of them now filled by migrants. 'We still can't fill the fourth job,' he said. There are some jobs that 'Spaniards just don't want to do.' One of his workers is Ibra Bayane, a 24-year-old Senegalese who arrived in Spain by sea in 2021, living ever since off the precariously shadow economy. He'd pick oranges or deliver food. At best, he said, he'd earn the equivalent of $35 a day. As a documented migrant, he has been able to get a driver's license for the first time and access basic medical care. Now, he can also travel back to Senegal to visit family without risk. His salary is no fortune – 60 euros a day – about $70 – for cleanup work in the hot southern Spanish sun. But it's twice what he was earning before – and enough to afford a small room with a vase of fresh flowers on a desk, and a large window that brings a cooling breeze. 'My life is better now,' he said. 'I can live.'


Yomiuri Shimbun
16 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Columbia Protester Mahmoud Khalil Freed from ICE Detention
Former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was freed from detention on Friday after a federal judge ordered his release, ruling that the government's efforts to keep him in custody were highly unusual and potentially a form of punishment for his political views. Khalil was the first noncitizen activist to be arrested and detained by the Trump administration this year as it launched a crackdown on what it said was antisemitism on college campuses. Khalil, a legal permanent resident, was arrested in New York in March and flown to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana. In April, his wife gave birth to their first child, Deen. U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of New Jersey said Friday that prosecutors had not provided a legitimate justification for Khalil's continued detention. The government's bid to keep Khalil detained based on a relatively minor alleged immigration infraction when he is neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community is 'highly, highly, highly unusual,' Farbiarz said. The facts of the case suggest that there is 'at least something to the underlying claim' that the government is using the immigration system to punish Khalil for his activism, the judge said. 'And of course that would be unconstitutional.' Just before 8 p.m., Khalil walked out of the detention center in Jena, Louisiana, flanked by his lawyers and wearing a kaffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian solidarity. No person 'should actually be detained for protesting a genocide,' Khalil said. 'Justice will prevail.' The first thing he hopes to do after 104 days in detention, he said, is 'just hug my wife and son.' The judge's order to release Khalil on bail marks the latest setback for the Trump administration in its pledge to detain and deport what it has termed 'pro-jihadist' students, with federal courts delivering a string of defeats to the government in recent weeks. One by one, the targeted students and scholars have been released as judges have taken a dim view of the rationale offered by prosecutors for their detentions. The lawyers for the detainees have said their arrests are a form of unconstitutional retaliation for their activism in opposition to the war in Gaza. Those freed in recent weeks include Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student grabbed by masked federal agents outside her apartment; Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student detained at his citizenship interview; and Badar Khan Suri, an Indian scholar at Georgetown University seized outside his home in Virginia. Federal courts have 'uniformly rejected the Trump administration's efforts to target international students' and green-card holders based on their speech, said Elora Mukherjee, a law professor at Columbia University. Taken together, Mukherjee said, the rulings send a clear message that the administration 'shouldn't be snatching up peaceful protesters and those who write op-eds.' Khalil had been detained far longer than any other targeted student and has not been accused of any crime. Instead, officials initially relied on an obscure provision of immigration law to arrest him and launch deportation proceedings. The provision allows the secretary of state to determine that a noncitizen's presence in the country would harm a 'compelling' foreign policy interest. In a March memo, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Khalil's participation in 'antisemitic protests' fostered a 'hostile environment for Jewish students' and undermined U.S. foreign policy. Last month, Farbiarz found that the provision of immigration law cited by Rubio was probably unconstitutional because of its vagueness, and last week, Farbiarz blocked the Trump administration from continuing to detain Khalil on foreign policy grounds. However, prosecutors subsequently said they were detaining Khalil based on a different rationale, namely their allegation that he had omitted information on his application for permanent residency. His lawyers deny that claim. Farbiarz also noted previously that the government 'virtually never' detains immigrants solely on that basis. Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, called Farbiarz a 'rogue district judge' and said Friday's ruling was 'yet another example of how out of control members of the judicial branch are in undermining national security.' 'The Trump administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detail Khalil,' McLaughlin said in a statement, adding that she expects a higher court to vindicate that position. While Khalil was released on bail in his federal detention case, his immigration proceeding will continue. On Friday, an immigration judge in Louisiana denied Khalil's request for bond – a decision overruled by Farbiarz's order. For Khalil and his family, there was relief and exultation. 'We can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father,' Noor Abdalla, Khalil's wife and a U.S. citizen, said in a statement. Khalil was born and raised in a refugee camp in Syria and went to college in Lebanon. He and his wife moved to the United States in 2023 to begin his graduate studies at Columbia. That fall, protests over the Israel-Gaza war erupted. Khalil was a prominent leader in the protests who interacted with the media without disguising his identity. While President Donald Trump has called him a 'Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student,' the government submitted no evidence in the case to back up those assertions. Instead, friends and colleagues described Khalil as someone who defused tensions and acted as an intermediary between student protesters and the university administration. Several Jewish students at Columbia wrote letters to the court attesting to his commitment to nonviolence and dialogue, and Khalil told CNN last year that 'antisemitism and any form of racism has no place on campus and in this movement.' Khalil missed his graduation from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs in May because of his detention. Khalil was freed without any form of GPS monitoring, and ICE officials will return his green card, although they will retain his passport. Under the terms of his release, he will be able to travel to New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Louisiana, as well as to Washington for lobbying and legislative purposes. Khalil has remained cautious through his long detention and separation from his family, but was ebullient on Friday, his lawyers said. 'It's an enormous relief that Mahmoud's nightmare of arrest and detention is coming to an end,' said Baher Azmy, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and one of Khalil's lawyers, adding that it should not have taken this long to free him. 'Americans should be grateful that there is someone who is willing to fight so hard for our collective First Amendment freedom against this obvious authoritarian tactic that threatens all of us,' Azmy said. 'We all owe a debt of gratitude to Mahmoud.'