Five years ago, the world watched the video of George Floyd’s murder go viral. We saw him gasping for breath, repeating “I can’t breathe,” while Derek Chauvin’s knee crushed his neck into the Minneapolis pavement. This past week, Mahmoud Khalil — Columbia University graduate student, lawful permanent resident, and Palestinian activist — testified from a Louisiana detention center that his deportation could mean his assassination, kidnapping, and torture. Between these two moments lies both the progress social justice movements have won — convictions, reforms, awakened consciousness; and the State’s calculated response — evolving its repression from killing those who don’t conform, to disappearing those who dare organize against this administration’s policies.

CLDC’s two attorneys have practiced movement law for 60 years combined (and soon to be joined by a third!). We’ve watched this country’s movements win real victories against oppression…and we’ve watched the system adapt its responses to be more oppressive over time. While many of us feel drained by the day-to-day insanity that has become our media cycle, it’s important to remember that what we’re witnessing isn’t the failure of our organizing, but the system working exactly as expected to counter our success (more force by the State in the face of losing the overall fight).

Make no mistake: both Floyd and Khalil represent precision targeting by the same racist, violent, hate-filled State apparatus. Floyd was murdered for the “crime” of being Black in America by a police system designed to maintain racial hierarchy through the targeted elimination of Black and Brown people. State violence has always been deployed against those who don’t fit the white supremacist order, but now we’re seeing it in larger numbers, and with more support from “out” white nationalist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Patriot Front. But we already knew that the current administration is in bed with such groups. (Must we recall the tragedy of January 6, 2021?)

In both cases, we see the State’s willingness to bypass constitutional protections entirely. Floyd was murdered in the street without trial, judge, or jury — the ultimate denial of due process. Khalil faces what his attorneys call a “charade of due process” (CNN) before an immigration judge who “serves at the pleasure of the president” and can be “fired at any time” (Democracy Now). For those who are unfamiliar with how immigration courts are different than those governed by the judicial branch, they are administrative tribunals within the executive branch where immigration judges, who can be hired and fired at the discretion of the Attorney General, hear and decide deportation cases without the same constitutional protections as federal courts. This is the evolution of extrajudicial killing: from Chauvin’s knee to immigration judges that provide the veneer of legality while delivering predetermined outcomes to please a dictator.

The State’s justifications follow the same playbook: frame the target as a threat to public safety. Floyd was painted as a dangerous criminal over an alleged $20 counterfeit bill, and then as a drug addict. Khalil stands accused of violating the Immigration and Nationality Act, specifically causing “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” as a result of his campus protest organizing, which happens to be protected by his First Amendment right as a permanent resident. And, as expected, the State consistently resorts to fear-mongering to justify excessive force, whether delivered through blatant police violence or opaque deportation machinery.

The five years between Floyd’s murder and Khalil’s detention tell a complex story: our movements won concrete victories — police convictions, local reforms, shifted consciousness, and intersectional movement solidarity. However, power never yields without first deploying new, harsher tactics. What we’re seeing now is the systematic dismantling of every reform promised after Floyd’s death.

Last Wednesday, just days before the 5-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, the Justice Department announced it will “terminate investigations and retract findings of wrongdoing in police departments nationwide,” in addition to “abandoning efforts to hold the police department in Minneapolis accountable for routinely violating Black people’s civil rights,” as well as similar efforts in Louisville, Kentucky (MSNBC). In the first month of his second term, Trump shut down the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database that compiled police misconduct data, ensuring that cops who have been terminated for misconduct can move freely between departments. Meanwhile, 2024 became the deadliest year for U.S. law enforcement violence on record, with 1,175 killings by police — more than ever before. As Rev. Al Sharpton said at a service on the anniversary of Floyd’s murder, Trump’s settlement cancellations were “tantamount to the Department of Justice and the president spitting on the grave of George Floyd” (Courthouse News). Every reform promise has been systematically dismantled – but that proves the power of what we built. These rollbacks represent the system’s response to our movements’ successes, not our failures.

Khalil’s case represents a chilling new frontier: the weaponization of immigration law to silence political speech. He was “the first arrestee in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown targeting student activism” (ABC7), establishing a precedent for using deportation to eliminate those who oppose his policies. This isn’t a dangerous criminal — this is a graduate student who had completed his coursework and was scheduled to walk at Columbia’s graduation, awaiting the birth of his first child. The government’s case against Khalil relies entirely on a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio accusing him of “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities” (NPR) — without citing any criminal charges. This creates a new category of deportable offense: (otherwise lawful) political speech the State deems threatening.

Five years after George Floyd’s murder, we face both the victories our movements have won and the machinery of State repression adapting in response. The system that killed Floyd wasn’t broken—it was built this way. While we should be proud of the progress we’ve made against the precision targeting that is part of the State’s enforcement mechanism, we must also be clear about what is that we’re facing. This isn’t a moment for despair — it’s a moment for sustained resistance that builds on our victories while adapting to new challenges.

The State’s tactics will only intensify. Today’s legal persecution follows yesterday’s police violence in one continuous arc of attempted social control. Understanding this continuity is essential for building the kind of resistance that can’t be silenced, disappeared, deported, or killed in the streets. From George Floyd’s final breath to Mahmoud Khalil’s fight for freedom, we witness the same racist, violent State deploying increasingly illegal and unconstitutional tools of repression. The question isn’t whether they’ll come for the organizers—they already are. The question is whether we can maintain the constitution to persevere in the face of it all.