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International media outlets have reported the arrest and attempted deportation of Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil as a specific measure by Donald Trump, motivated by the U.S. president’s Islamophobia. If this were the only issue, it would already be extremely serious and dangerous.

However, the extensive repressive record of U.S. authorities and the true motivations behind these persecutions are often overlooked. These are political persecutions not only against solidarity with the Palestinian people but also against the organization of oppressed sectors within the U.S., that is, against their own people.

It is no coincidence that this history of systematic persecution of Muslims began in the 1960s. This was precisely when Black Americans, victims of an apartheid system that persisted even during the post-war welfare state, became aware of their civil rights and radicalized to fight for them. The external environment was also conducive and influenced the creation of various Black organizations, particularly revolutionary ones. The peoples of the so-called “Third World” were rebelling and forcibly gaining their independence against colonial powers. It was a time of crisis for imperialist domination and intense political and social agitation in the U.S. and worldwide—expressed mainly through the Vietnam War and, in Western countries, the 1968 protests.

The class component was fundamental: those Black individuals lived in the poorest working-class neighborhoods of industrial cities. The racial aspect was also essential: after centuries of slavery, authorities and white citizens had grown accustomed to treating Black people as subhuman. But the religious element was also significant: many of the peoples rebelling against colonial oppression were predominantly Muslim, from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

There was a wave of conversions to Islam among activists in Black neighborhoods of U.S. cities. Many considered Islam the original religion of Africans brought to America as slaves and sought to reclaim this tradition, encouraged by empathy with the peoples rebelling during those years. Malcolm X adopted the name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, and Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali. The Black Panthers—with many converted members—became the primary threat to the regime, according to the FBI, which worked to suppress the movement’s vanguard by assassinating dozens of militants and disrupting Black communities through infiltrations.

Former Black activists remain imprisoned to this day, such as Mumia Abu-Jamal (since 1981, now 71 years old) and Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (imprisoned for five years in the early 1970s and again since 2000, now 81 years old). Many prominent Black figures converted to Islam in prison, including Malcolm X and, more recently, boxer Mike Tyson.

In 2019, the organization Muslim Advocates published a report estimating that 9% of prisoners in the U.S. were Muslim (136,000 inmates), despite Muslims making up just over 1% of the U.S. population. In other words, Muslims are nine times more likely to be incarcerated than their demographic representation in the U.S.

The class-based nature, linked to race, behind Americans’ conversion to Islam is evident. In 1996, Black individuals represented 42% of the Muslim community in the U.S., compared to only 1.6% of whites. The rest were immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries. Another 2019 report showed different numbers: 20% of Muslims were Black. Interestingly, half of these were converts. It is no surprise that Muslim converts are prominently represented in rap, hip-hop, boxing, and basketball—cultural and sports traditions rooted in Black and working-class communities.

After the post-war boom, which led to the crisis of the early 1970s, the new cycle of prosperity and crisis post-Cold War was also marked by increased repression against the Muslim community in the U.S. The infamous “War on Terror” under George W. Bush used the 9/11 attacks and the lie about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction not only to invade, devastate, and plunder predominantly Muslim countries but also to wage an internal war.

The FBI itself acknowledged that hate crimes against Muslims in the U.S. surged after 9/11. In 2008, Shukri Abu-Baker and Ghassan Elashi were each sentenced to 65 years in prison, along with others from the Holy Land Foundation, accused of ties to Hamas. This was the first time in U.S. history that an unidentified government agent was allowed to testify as a witness in a supposed crime.

Between 2002 and 2022, at least 779 Muslims (including children) were detained by the U.S. at the illegal naval base prison in Guantánamo, Cuba. Almost all were held without charges or trials. Many were tortured, some to death.

A 2021 report by the Coalition for Civil Freedoms revealed that more than half of the alleged terrorism cases were manipulated by the FBI through a network of 15,000 paid informants infiltrating Muslim communities to fabricate evidence or incidents.

The apparatus built by previous Democratic and Republican administrations is the foundation for the persecution, repression, and deportation policies announced by Trump. From the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows for the deportation of “communists,” to Bush’s Patriot Act, the path is already paved and tested for a new witch hunt. Even as Trump conducts a thorough review to ensure his group takes control of the “deep state,” changes are unlikely to harm the apparatus tied to the Zionist lobby.

The Palestinian liberation struggle, which intensified in late 2023, has had significant effects on U.S. domestic politics, particularly on the morale of millions of young people, workers, and activists. Thousands of students were arrested during the Biden administration’s crackdown on university protests last year. The rejection of Biden’s support for genocide helped defeat his vice president, Kamala Harris, who replaced him partly because he was electorally damaged by the execution of the Gaza genocide.

However, these millions of citizens, heirs to the student, Black, and labor struggles of the 1960s, are not supporters of Trumpism. As Trump’s “savior” economic policies fail to deliver results for these groups and as he intensifies repression to contain popular dissatisfaction—with neoliberal policies and imperialist ambitions—opposition to the regime is likely to grow. The regime knows this and is therefore intensifying its persecution of pro-Palestine activists. They represent a sentiment deeply rooted in the working class, which is beginning to reawaken.