Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of media concerning the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia College throughout the ongoing battle between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, in New York Metropolis, U.S., June 1, 2024.
Picture: Jeenah Moon/Reuters
On Saturday, Palestinian activist and former Columbia College grad scholar Mahmoud Khalil, who performed a major function within the Gaza protests at Columbia final 12 months, was arrested by federal immigration authorities. In accordance with his legal professional, Khalil is a authorized everlasting resident however is presently being detained regardless of his standing and no particular expenses have been detailed. A choose has quickly blocked Khalil’s deportation pending additional motion on his movement difficult his detention.
The dramatic motion got here simply days after President Donald Trump signaled his administration’s plan to crack down on scholar protests — elevating the specter of deportation for these within the nation on a visa in addition to the revocation of federal funds for the universities and universities themselves. Khalil’s arrest has been condemned by many native political leaders and championed by members of Trump’s administration and its allies. Right here’s what we all know thus far.
On Saturday night, Khalil was approached at his home by Division of Homeland Safety brokers. In accordance with Khalil’s legal professional, Amy Greer, the brokers proceeded to detain Khalil and threatened his spouse, an American citizen who’s eight months pregnant, with arrest as properly. The condominium constructing the place Khalil lives along with his spouse is owned by the college.
Greer advised the Associated Press that one of many brokers advised her over the cellphone that they have been following orders from the State Division to revoke Khalil’s scholar visa. When Greer advised them that Khalil possessed a inexperienced card and was a authorized everlasting resident, the agent stated they have been revoking that as a substitute.
In accordance with Greer, Khalil’s household was advised that he was transported to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, however they have been later knowledgeable that he wasn’t there after an tried go to. As of Monday, in response to ICE’s on-line detainee locator, Khalil is being held at a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana,
In a press release issued late Monday, Greer referred to as Khalil’s switch to Louisiana from New York a “blatantly improper however acquainted tactic.”
“That switch needs to be reversed, and the method of difficult the outrageous try to revoke Authorized Everlasting Resident standing for somebody who has by no means dedicated a criminal offense, and who has merely expressed his political views,” she stated.
Khalil’s authorized group has since filed a habeas corpus petition and U.S. District Choose Jesse Furman, who was assigned the matter, has blocked Khalil’s elimination pending motion on the submitting. The choose has additionally ordered a listening to for Khalil’s case for Wednesday.
Khalil graduated from Columbia College in 2024 with a Grasp of Public Administration from its College of Worldwide and Public Affairs. He was a lead negotiator for Columbia College Apartheid Divest, the student-led coalition advocating for the college’s divestment from Israel. The group had come below fireplace for its on-campus protests of the continued battle in Gaza, notably their Gaza Solidarity Encampment that was subjected to quite a few raids by native legislation enforcement final 12 months.
Drop-Site News stories that Khalil participated in a sit-in on the Barnard Faculty’s Milstein Middle on Wednesday, protesting the college’s current expulsion of a number of college students for participating in pro-Palestinian protests.
The AP additionally stories that Khalil had been below investigation by the Workplace of Institutional Fairness, a newly created college workplace meant to deal with stories of harassment and discrimination, because of his involvement with CUAD.
“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. “They simply wish to present Congress and right-wing politicians that they’re doing one thing, whatever the stakes for college students,” he added. “It’s primarily an workplace to sit back pro-Palestine speech.”
Zeteo reported Monday that Khalil had emailed Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong final Friday with issues for his security after being subjected to a “vicious, coordinated, and dehumanizing doxxing marketing campaign.”
“Their assaults have incited a wave of hate, together with requires my deportation and loss of life threats. I’ve outlined the broader context beneath, but Columbia has not supplied any significant assist or sources in response to this escalating menace,” he wrote, in response to emails obtained by the outlet.
To date, the Trump administration hasn’t articulated what expenses, if any, that Khalil is being detained on. Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, confirmed Khalil’s arrest in a press release, saying that it was completed in coordination with the State Division and alleging that Khalil “led actions aligned to Hamas, a chosen terrorist group.”
“ICE and the Division of State are dedicated to imposing President Trump’s govt orders and to defending U.S. nationwide safety,” she said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed McLaughlin’s phrases on social media, making it clear that Khalil’s detention was an intentional transfer from the Trump administration. “We will likely be revoking the visas and/or inexperienced playing cards of Hamas supporters in America to allow them to be deported,” he wrote, sharing a hyperlink to a information article about Khalil.
Trump denounced Khalil as a “Radical Overseas Professional-Hamas Pupil” in a TruthSocial post Monday and stated that there are extra arrests to come back. “We all know there are extra college students at Columbia and different Universities throughout the Nation who’ve engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American exercise, and the Trump Administration is not going to tolerate it,” he stated.
The New York Civil Liberties Union condemned Khalil’s arrest as an affront to his proper to free speech. “The Trump administration’s detention of Mahmoud Khalil — a inexperienced card holder learning on this nation legally — is focused, retaliatory, and an excessive assault on his First Modification rights,” Govt Director Donna Lieberman stated in a statement. Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who’s operating within the New York Metropolis mayoral race, additionally called for Khalil’s speedy launch, noting his arrest was a “blatant assault on the First Modification and an indication of advancing authoritarianism below Trump.”
Letitia James, the state legal professional basic, said Monday that she is “extraordinarily involved” about Khalil’s arrest and detention and that her workplace is presently monitoring the state of affairs and can be involved along with his authorized illustration.
Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex denounced Khalil’s detention and stated it raised issues about how a lot additional the Trump administration might go. “If the federal authorities can disappear a authorized US everlasting resident with out purpose or warrant, then they’ll disappear US residents too. Anybody – left, proper, or middle – who has highlighted the significance of constitutional rights + free speech needs to be sounding the alarm now.,” she wrote on X.
NBC News stories that protesters plan to carry an indication at New York Metropolis’s Federal Plaza on Monday, calling for Khalil’s launch.
Although Rubio has acknowledged that the US will start revoking inexperienced playing cards, his capability to take action seems legally doubtful. Sometimes, an immigration choose is tasked with figuring out whether or not an individual’s authorized resident standing might be revoked, following allegations of prison exercise or fraudulent actions within the utility course of. In a sequence of tweets on Bluesky, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, stated that the State Division lacks the authority to unilaterally revoke a inexperienced card.
“Whereas the State Division CAN revoke *visas* with little or no authorized course of concerned, stripping somebody of a inexperienced card is completed by DHS (not the State Division) and requires submitting formal expenses alleging a violation of immigration legislation and a elimination listening to in entrance of an immigration choose,” he wrote.
Nevertheless, Reichlin-Melnick noted that a side of the Immigration and Nationality Act could allow for a non-citizen to be deported if the Secretary of State deems them deportable on nationwide safety grounds.
On Tuesday, CNN reported that Rubio appeared to have invoked a overseas coverage provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act to detain Khalil.
It’s not but clear if another pro-Palestinian protesters have been equally detained. However Khalil was reportedly not the one Columbia scholar that authorities sought out over the weekend. The Associated Press stories that federal immigration brokers tried to take a world scholar into custody, however weren’t capable of enter her condominium. Pupil Staff of Columbia, a college union that represents the unidentified girl, advised the outlet that the ICE brokers tried to enter her dwelling with no warrant.
Final week, Trump indicated that going after campus activists is a prime precedence for his administration and that he intends to penalize the establishments themselves for permitting the demonstrations.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any Faculty, College, or College that enables unlawful protests. Agitators will likely be imprisoned/or completely despatched again to the nation from which they got here. American college students will likely be completely expelled or, relying on the crime, arrested,” he wrote on TruthSocial.
On Friday, the Trump administration announced that it had cancelled $400 million in federal grants and contracts with Columbia College, citing the college’s “continued inaction within the face of persistent harassment of Jewish college students.”
