Mahmoud Khalil is proven on the Columbia College campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024.
Ted Shaffrey/AP
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Ted Shaffrey/AP
NEW YORK — Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian activist Saturday who performed a outstanding position in Columbia College’s protests in opposition to Israel, a major escalation within the Trump administration’s pledge to detain and deport pupil activists.
Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate pupil at Columbia till this previous December, was inside his university-owned condominium Saturday night time when a number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers entered and took him into custody, his legal professional, Amy Greer, advised The Related Press.
Greer mentioned she spoke by telephone with one of many ICE brokers through the arrest, who mentioned they had been performing on State Division orders to revoke Khalil’s pupil visa. Knowledgeable by the legal professional that Khalil was in the US as a everlasting resident with a inexperienced card, the agent mentioned they had been revoking that as a substitute, in keeping with the lawyer.
A spokesperson for the Division of Homeland Safety, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed Khalil’s arrest in an announcement Sunday, describing it as being “in help of President Trump’s govt orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”
Khalil’s arrest is the primary publicly recognized deportation effort underneath Trump’s promised crackdown on college students who joined protests in opposition to the battle in Gaza that swept school campuses final spring. The administration has claimed contributors forfeited their rights to stay within the nation by supporting Hamas.
McLaughlin signaled the arrest was straight related to Khalil’s position within the protests, alleging he “led actions aligned to Hamas, a chosen terrorist group.”
As ICE brokers arrived at Khalil’s Manhattan residence Saturday night time, additionally they threatened to arrest Khalil’s spouse, an American citizen who’s eight months pregnant, Greer mentioned.
Khalil’s legal professional mentioned they had been initially knowledgeable that he was being held at an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. However when his spouse tried to go to Sunday, she discovered he was not there. Greer mentioned she nonetheless didn’t know Khalil’s whereabouts as of Sunday night time.
“We now have not been in a position to get any extra particulars about why he’s being detained,” Greer advised the AP. “This can be a clear escalation. The administration is following via on its threats.”
A Columbia College spokesperson mentioned regulation enforcement brokers should produce a warrant earlier than coming into college property, however declined to say if the college had obtained one forward of Khalil’s arrest. The spokesperson declined to touch upon Khalil’s detention.
In a message shared on X Sunday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned the administration “can be revoking the visas and/or inexperienced playing cards of Hamas supporters in America to allow them to be deported.”
The Division of Homeland Safety can provoke deportation proceedings in opposition to inexperienced card holders for a broad vary of alleged legal exercise, together with supporting a terror group. However the detention of a authorized everlasting resident who has not been charged with against the law marked a rare transfer with an unsure authorized basis, in keeping with immigration specialists.
“This has the looks of a retaliatory motion in opposition to somebody who expressed an opinion the Trump administration did not like,” mentioned Camille Mackler, founding father of Immigrant ARC, a coalition of authorized service suppliers in New York.
Khalil, who obtained his grasp’s diploma from Columbia’s faculty of worldwide affairs final semester, served as a negotiator for college kids as they bargained with college officers over an finish to the tent encampment erected on campus final spring.
The position made him probably the most seen activists in help of the motion, prompting calls from pro-Israel activists in current weeks for the Trump administration to start deportation proceedings in opposition to him.
Khalil was additionally amongst these underneath investigation by a brand new Columbia College workplace that has introduced disciplinary fees in opposition to dozens of scholars for his or her pro-Palestinian activism, in keeping with information shared with the AP.
The investigations come because the Trump administration has adopted via on its menace to chop tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in funding to Columbia due to what the federal government describes because the Ivy League faculty’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus.
The college’s allegations in opposition to Khalil targeted on his involvement within the Columbia College Apartheid Divest group. He confronted sanctions for doubtlessly serving to to prepare an “unauthorized marching occasion” wherein contributors glorified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault and taking part in a “substantial position” within the circulation of social media posts criticizing Zionism, amongst different acts of alleged discrimination.
“I’ve round 13 allegations in opposition to me, most of them are social media posts that I had nothing to do with,” Khalil advised the AP final week.
“They only need to present Congress and right-wing politicians that they are doing one thing, whatever the stakes for college kids,” he added. “It is primarily an workplace to sit back pro-Palestine speech.”
