Source: TIMOTHY A. CLARY / Getty
An activist who was a key organizer of the pro-Palestinian student protest movement at Columbia University was arrested by ICE over the weekend.
The effort to detain and deport student activists by President Donald Trump took a new turn as federal authorities arrested an activist who helped organize pro-Palestinian student protests at Columbia University. Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at the university until last December, was detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last Saturday evening at his university-owned apartment. According to his lawyer, Amy Greer, Kahlil is a legal green card resident of the United States. They also threatened to arrest his wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant.
Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Khalil’s arrest on Sunday night to the press. “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” she said. “ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio went further in a post on X, formerly Twitter, linking to another article covering the arrest and writing: “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
“We will vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud’s rights in court, and will continue our efforts to right this terrible and inexcusable — and calculated — wrong committed against him,” Greer said in a statement, adding that Khalil’s arrest “follows the U.S. government’s open repression of student activism and political speech.” Greer said that they were unsure of his “precise whereabouts,” stating that they were told that he was being held in an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, but when his wife arrived to visit she was told he wasn’t there. She speculated that he could be as far away as Louisiana.
Khalil had served as a negotiator between students who erected encampments at Columbia and university officials last spring. It made him a target for pro-Israel figures who labeled him as antisemitic, including Columbia University professor Shai Davidal who openly called for him to be deported. The arrest has sparked outrage from several civil liberties groups. Columbia Law School immigrant rights director Elora Mukherjee said that revoking Khalil’s green card with no criminal offense “in retaliation for his public speech, that is prohibited by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” expressing it was a rare situation.
