Federal immigration authorities have arrested a Columbia University graduate who helped lead the school’s Gaza-solidarity student protests last year. The detention of Mahmoud Khalil — a Palestinian activist who is a green-card holder and married to an American citizen — has marked a turning point in the Trump administration’s promise to crack down on campus protests by detaining and deporting student activists.
“ICE’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” said Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer, according to CNN. “The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech.”
Khalil’s arrest is the first publicly known deportation effort related to the pro-Palestine student protests. At a hearing on Wednesday, his lawyers asked a judge to order that the federal government transfer Khalil from the Louisiana detention center where he is being held back to New York. They said they haven’t been able to speak privately with Khalil since his arrest. The judge has yet to make a decision on the matter but has already told the federal government it can’t deport Khalil while his case is pending.
Khalil’s wife, who is eight months pregnant, detailed his “traumatizing” arrest in a statement released on Tuesday evening. (She has declined to share her name out of fear of reprisal.) “U.S. immigration ripped my soul from me,” she said in the statement. “Instead of putting together our nursery and washing baby clothes in anticipation of our first child, I am left sitting in our apartment, wondering when Mahmoud will get a chance to call me from a detention center.” After the hearing on Wednesday, Khalil’s attorney read another statement from his wife, in which she accused the Trump administration of kidnapping her husband and demanded his immediate release.
The Trump administration has alleged that activists like Khalil supported Hamas and therefore forfeited their rights to remain in the U.S. Government lawyers have justified the case by citing an obscure 1952 statute they say gives Secretary of State Marco Rubio the power to initiate deportation proceedings against anyone he believes “would have potentially serious adverse foreign-policy consequences for the United States” were they to remain in the country.
After news of the arrest caused nationwide outrage, President Donald Trump praised Khalil’s detention in a Truth Social post, warning that it was the “first of many to come.” Immigration officials attempted to detain a second international student this weekend but were unsuccessful, the Associated Press reported. Student Workers of Columbia, a graduate union representing the unidentified student, said ICE agents showed up to her university-owned apartment on Friday and tried to enter without a warrant. However, they were not let in and left without arresting the student.
Khalil was selected to negotiate with the school administration at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment last spring, making him one of the most visible student-protest leaders; as a result, he was investigated by a new disciplinary committee that has taken action against students for their pro-Palestinian activism. Khalil graduated in December with a master’s degree from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
In a press release, Writers Against the War on Gaza said that plainclothes Homeland Security agents showed up on Saturday night at the university-owned building where Khalil and his wife live. The group said that the agents forced their way into the building, refused to identify themselves, and detained Khalil without explanation after he confirmed his identity. The agents threatened to arrest Khalil’s wifeif she did not leave his side, according to the statement. The agents then allegedly told Khalil that the State Department had revoked his student visa even though he has a green card and is a lawful permanent resident. After Khalil’s wife retrieved his green card in their apartment and showed it to agents, “one agent was visibly confused and said on the phone, ‘He has a green card,’” the press release says. “However, after a moment, the DHS agents stated that the State Department had ‘revoked that too.’” Khalil’s wife then called Greer, who requested that a copy of the warrant be emailed to her, but the agent who was speaking to her hung up the call, the group says.
According to Greer, immigration authorities originally said Khalil was detained at an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, but when his wife tried to visit him on Sunday, she was told he was not in custody there. His whereabouts were unknown until Monday morning, when the ICE locator showed Khalil being held at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana. He has remained there since.
Khalil’s arrest came one day after the Trump administration announced that it was canceling $400 million in federal grants to Columbia owing to what it said was the university’s inaction in curbing antisemitism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a news article about the arrest on X and promised that “we will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
Khalil’s arrest represents uncharted legal territory, experts said. While Homeland Security has the authority to begin deportation proceedings against green-card holders for participating in alleged criminal activity — including supporting a terror group — detaining a legal permanent resident who has not been criminally charged or convicted is yet another boundary-pushing move from the Trump administration.
“In the United States, the First Amendment guarantees everyone freedom of speech. Targeting a student activist is an affront to the rights of Mahmoud Khalil and his family. This blatantly unconstitutional act sends a deplorable message that freedom of speech is no longer protected in America,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said in a statement. “Furthermore, Khalil and all people living in the United States are afforded due process. A green card can only be revoked by an immigration judge, showing once again that the Trump administration is willing to ignore the law in order to instill fear and further its racist agenda.”
A petition demanding Khalil’s release has nearly 3 million signatures at the time of this writing.