LOFM Quakers Alex McDonald and Patrick Brooks joined activists from the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) to protest the detention of jailed student activist Mahmoud Khalil at an ICE detention center in Jena, Louisiana on May 22nd, 2025. A bus left Live Oak Friends Meeting at 4:00 AM in order to make the protest which was scheduled around noon. Buses from all major cities in Texas as well as New Orleans, Louisiana rendezvoused in Jena and there were more than a hundred protestors.

Alex and Patrick joined a few other Quakers from those buses at the protest site. They had to walk about a mile or so as ICE was not allowing bus parking near the detention center.Mahmoud Khalil got to hold his newborn son, Deen, for the first time that day during his immigration hearing and his wife thanked the protestors afterwards. In the mid-afternoon the buses started heading back and Alex and Patrick disembarked at Live Oak Friends Meeting around 10 PM after a very long day of speaking truth to power. Almost a month later, Khalil was released on bail on June 20th, 2025.