On Saturday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the Gaza protests at Columbia University last spring, at his apartment in New York City.
Khalil, who is Palestinian, is a permanent U.S. resident, but according to his his attorney, Amy Greer, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents executed a State Department order to revoke his student visa and green card.
Khalil was a recent graduate of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and had been a lead negotiator for student activists during the Gaza solidarity encampment in the spring of 2024.
According to a statement by the group Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), at 8:30 pm two plainclothes DHS agents forced themselves into the home of Khalil and his pregnant wife, refusing to identify themselves.
One agent eventually showed Khalil a warrant on his phone, which prompted his wife to find his green card to present to the officers.
“When she returned, advising them of Khalil’s legal status and presenting them with Khalil’s green card, one agent was visibly confused and said on the phone, ‘He has a green card.’,” says the WAWOG statement. “However, after a moment, the DHS agents stated that the State Department had ‘revoked that too.’ Khalil’s wife then phoned his attorney, who spoke with the agents in an attempt to intervene. When Khalil’s attorney requested that a copy of the warrant be emailed to her, the agent hung up the call.”
Khalil’s exact current whereabouts are unknown, with his attorney saying she is unsure if he is being held in an ICE detention facility in New York or New Jersey.
Responding to a press inquiry from Drop Site News, DHS said reporters would “need to reach out to the White House” for answers.
Trump administration targets Palestine activists
Universities and local police enacted consistent crackdowns on Palestine protesters under Biden, but there have been growing fears that the Trump administration would use government agencies to directly target students. On the campaign trail President Trump told a group of pro-Israel donors that he would set the Palestine movement back by decades.
“One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave,” said Trump at the event.
Shortly after he was elected Trump signed an executive order aimed at canceling the visas of foreign students who participated in the protests.
“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” said Trump in a fact sheet released by The White House. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
On Friday the administration announced that it was canceling $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, over its alleged inability to protect Jewish students from harassment. For years pro-Israel lawmakers and advocates have fought to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism in order to stifle criticism of Israel and suppress Palestine organizing
Last week Axios reported that the Secretary of State Marco Rubio is launching an AI-assisted “Catch and Revoke” program to cancel the visas of foreign nationals who support Hamas.
Reactions
Khalil’s detention was immediately condemned by human rights organizations and activists. Many criticized the Columbia University administration for acquiescing to the desires of the Trump administration, pro-Israel donors, and Zionist organizations. The school recently published a new protocol reversing the school’s previous status as a sanctuary campus status and allowing ICE access to the school without a warrant during “exigent circumstances.”
On Sunday, Columbia University issued the following statement in response to Khalil’s detention:
“There have been reports of ICE around campus. Columbia has and will continue to follow the law. Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings. Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community.”
In response to the new university protocol and Khalil’s arrest, Student Workers of Columbia (UAW Local 2710) issued a statement demanding university president Katrina Armstrong reinstate Columbia as a sanctuary campus and refuse to collaborate with the Trump Administration.
“By allowing ICE on campus, Columbia is surrendering to the Trump administration’s assault on universities across the country and sacrificing international students to protect its finances,” the statement reads. “We call on faculty, staff, postdocs, students, and all other workers at Columbia University to stand against the administration’s cooperation with the Trump administration.”
“Columbia allowed this to happen,” wrote a student activist on Twitter. “Columbia allowed ICE to abduct a Palestinian member of our community after an incessant vitriolic doxxing campaign started by our own campus zionists. Mahmoud’s wife is due in one month and they took him right in front of her. This is unbearable.”
Khalil had faced disciplinary action over his activism in recent months, being accused of misconduct just weeks before he graduated in December. Khalil says the school but hold on his transcript and threatened to prohibit him from graduating over his refusal to sign a nondisclosure agreement, but eventually backed down on the issue.
“I have around 13 allegations against me, most of them are social media posts that I had nothing to do with,” Khalil told the AP just two days before his arrest. “They just want to show Congress and right-wing politicians that they’re doing something, regardless of the stakes for students. It’s mainly an office to chill pro-Palestine speech.”
“Like many other Arab and Muslim students, Khalil has been the target of various zionist harassment campaigns, fueled by doxxing websites like Canary Mission,” reads a letter being circulated by the organization Deportation Defense. “This racist targeting serves to instill fear in pro-Palestine activists as well as a warning to others.”