Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil on the Columbia University campus in New York at an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024. (Ted Shaffrey/AP)According to his attorney, Mahmoud Khalil, who just finished a PhD program at Columbia, possesses valid permanent status.
According to his attorney on Sunday, a prominent activist who was instrumental in last year's pro-Palestinian student movement at Columbia University was arrested by federal immigration authorities on Saturday.
President Trump's crackdown on what he has described as antisemitic student activism has significantly increased with the arrest of the activist, a lawful permanent resident of the United States.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Mahmoud Khalil, the activist, is of Palestinian descent and received a master's degree from the university's school of international affairs in December. Amy Greer, his attorney, acknowledged that he had a green card and stated that there will be a strong legal fight to the arrest.
In a statement, Ms. Greer stated, "We will tenaciously be pursuing Mahmoud's rights in court, and we will continue our efforts to right this terrible and inexcusable — and calculated — wrong committed against him." She claimed that the arrest "follows the open repression of student activism and political speech by the U.S. government."
The "specific whereabouts" of Mr. Khalil are unknown to Ms. Greer, who stated that he might have been moved as far away as Louisiana. According to Ms. Greer, Mr. Khalil's wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, attempted to visit him at a New Jersey detention facility but was informed that he was not being held there.
According to a statement released Sunday evening by Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Mr. Khalil was detained "in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting antisemitism."
She claimed that "Khalil led activities that were in line with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization." "The Department of State and ICE are dedicated to safeguarding U.S. national security and implementing President Trump's executive orders."
A news report on Mr. Khalil's arrest was linked to on X by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also made the general pledge that "We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."
Ms. Greer stated that although Mr. Khalil does not currently possess a student visa, the immigration officials who arrested him informed him that it had been terminated. Elora Mukherjee, head of the immigrants' rights clinic at Columbia Law School, stated that it is extremely uncommon for a green card to be revoked and that in the great majority of those instances, the holder has been charged with and found guilty of a crime.
Ms. Mukherjee stated that she was currently gathering information regarding this specific instance and that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution forbids the government from canceling Mr. Khalil's green card "in retaliation for his public speech."
The revocation procedure is usually drawn out, according to Jodi Ziesemer, director of the New York Legal Assistance Group's immigrant protection branch. According to her, a person with a green card may be detained throughout that procedure but not deported.
Mr. Khalil was a regular participant in the rallies that swept through Columbia last spring, turning the Manhattan campus into the focal point of anti-Gaza war protests around the country. He told reporters about his work as a spokesperson and negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian organization.
Columbia is the first target of the Trump administration's campaign to penalize what he considers to be prestigious universities for failing to protect Jewish students during protests on campus.
The administration terminated $400 million in contracts and funding to the university, it said Friday. Last week, Mr. Trump promised to penalize individual protestors whom his administration deemed to be "agitators" in a social media post.
"Any college, school, or university that permits unlawful protests will no longer receive any federal funding," Mr. Trump wrote. "Agitators will either be permanently returned to their home country or put in jail." Depending on the offense, American students will either be arrested or permanently expelled.
Administrators at Columbia did not directly address the arrest in a statement released on Sunday.
The statement said, "Columbia is dedicated to upholding all legal requirements and assisting our student body and campus community." "We also encourage everyone in the community to respect our students' legal rights because we are dedicated to their protection."
Several free speech organizations, advocates for immigrant rights, and politicians swiftly denounced the detention on Sunday.
The New York Civil Liberties Union's director, Donna Lieberman, stated in a statement that the imprisonment "reeks of McCarthyism." The arrest, she continued, was "an aggressive abuse of immigration law and a frightening escalation of Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestine speech."
The arrest was described as "a blatant assault on the First Amendment and a sign of advancing authoritarianism under Trump" by Queens assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who is also a mayoral candidate. Some pro-Israel organizations have reacted negatively to Mr. Mamdani's criticism of Israel as a democratic socialist.
Additionally, "This flagrantly unconstitutional act sends a deplorable message that freedom of speech is no longer protected in America," said a statement from New York Immigration Coalition President Murad Awawdeh.
However, in a series of social media posts, the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, which has been advocating for harsh measures against pro-Palestinian protesters, hailed Mr. Khalil's arrest and accused him of being the "ringleader" of the disruption at Columbia without providing any supporting evidence.
Before his detention on Saturday, Mr. Khalil told Reuters that he was afraid the federal authorities would target him.
He declared, "It is obvious that Trump is using the demonstrators as a scapegoat for his larger agenda of attacking and combating higher education and the Ivy League educational system."
Last week, when Barnard College, a women's college connected to Columbia, exploded after announcing that it was dismissing two students for interfering with a seminar on modern Israel, Mr. Khalil was actively negotiating on behalf of demonstrators. During one campus sit-in, Mr. Khalil held up a megaphone to enhance the voice of Barnard's president, Laura Rosenbury, as she called protesters on the phone to negotiate.
Last spring, Columbia temporarily suspended Mr. Khalil for his involvement in the demonstrations, but the school later overturned the decision. According to an online biography, he has experience in diplomacy and has served in the British Embassy in Beirut.
On social media, Mr. Khalil has been singled out by opponents of the Columbia protest movement in recent days. Mr. Rubio was urged to deport Mr. Khalil by Shai Davidai, a prominent pro-Israel Columbia professor who was expelled from the institution after it claimed he harassed and intimidated staff.
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