The leader of the New York university’s pro-Palestinian movement was detained by immigration officials last weekend
March 11, 2025 09:27
ByAndrew Bernard, and Izzy Salant for Jewish News Syndicate
A district court judge has blocked the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-Israel activist and recent graduate of Columbia University whom US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested on Saturday.
Jesse Furman, a Jewish judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, scheduled a hearing for Khalil's attorneys and the government to appear on March 12.
Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump praised efforts to deport Khalil. “Following my previously signed executive orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a radical foreign pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He added that his administration will not tolerate “antisemitic, anti-American activity.”
“We will find, apprehend and deport these terrorist sympathisers from our country—never to return again,” Trump stated. “If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests and you are not welcome here.”
The White House also posted Trump’s statement, accompanied by the caption “Shalom Mahmoud,” making reference to a previous statement from the president directed at Hamas.
Khalil is reportedly an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent who was born in Syria and who was admitted to the United States on a student visa and obtained a green card, becoming a US permanent resident. He is also reportedly married to a US citizen.
Since 2024, he has been a leader, negotiator and spokesman for the anti-Israel protest movement on Columbia’s campus, which garnered national attention after students illegally occupied the school’s quad and sparked copycat tent encampment protests at universities across the country.
Federal agents arrested Khalil in his Columbia housing, his lawyer told the Associated Press. The agents initially told Khalil his student visa had been revoked, despite the fact that he had a green card, according to his lawyer.
According to the ICE website, Khalil is currently being held at the La Salle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana. His lawyer filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on Sunday demanding his appearance in the Southern District of New York.
Green card holders have the right to remain in the United States permanently unless they have violated some condition of their residency, such as committing a felony or having lied in their application documents.
It is not clear what, if anything, Khalil has been charged with, but the US Department of Homeland Security stated on Sunday that he was arrested “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism.”
“Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation,” the department said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on Sunday, in response to an AP story about the arrest, that the Trump administration would revoke the visas and green cards of “Hamas supporters in America.”
Letitia James, the New York attorney general, said on Monday that she was “extremely concerned” about the arrest and that her office was “monitoring the situation” and was in contact with Khalil’s attorney.
Several elected Democrats have supported Khalil, arguing that he is being deported for protected speech.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee stated “free Mahmoud Khalil,” while Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) called the deportation proceedings “straight out of the fascist playbook.”
“Criminalizing dissent is an assault on our First Amendment and freedom of speech,” Tlaib wrote. “Revoking someone’s green card for expressing their political opinion is illegal. Protesting genocide is not a crime.”
Representative Ilhan Omar and New York City Council speaker Adrienne Adams were among the elected Democrats who called the deportation effort against Khalil “authoritarianism.”
The Trump administration signalled on Monday that it was not concerned with objections from Democrats by quoting part of the president’s statement from earlier in the day.
“This is the first arrest of many to come,” the White House wrote, quoting Trump in response to the Senate Judiciary Democrats.