The Department of Homeland Security is actively identifying students and faculty on college campuses who engage in antisemitic, pro-Hamas activity for potential removal from the country, an indication that the arrest of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil is only the beginning of a planned purge.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not identify the number of arrests DHS is forecasting but said Columbia University has been alerted of other foreign-born individuals who could find themselves apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“This administration is not going to tolerate individuals having the privilege of studying in our country and then siding with pro-terrorist organizations that have killed Americans. We have a zero-tolerance policy for siding with terrorists, period,” Leavitt said at the White House Tuesday.
The Trump administration is leaning on the 73-year-old Immigration and Nationality Act, which empowers the secretary of state to revoke a green card or visa from individuals for exhibiting conduct adverse to U.S. foreign policy and national security.
Leavitt said this law allowed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revoke the visa of Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student taken into custody over the weekend.
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The Department of Homeland Security claims Khalil’s involvement in pro-Palestinian protests included organizing events that glorified Hamas, harassing Jewish students and circulating anti-Zionist social media posts. Khalil’s legal team emphasizes his lawful permanent residency and the lack of formal criminal charges against him. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation.
While the Immigration and Nationality Act is worded to give authorities broad discretion for removals, Greg Siskind, a nationally recognized immigration attorney, said the Trump administration’s move is likely to face scrutiny from judges who fear an expansion of executive power.
“I’m guessing that the threat of removal is going to mean more than the actual reality. I’m reminded of the first Trump administration where they were threatening to denaturalize people en masse and very few people were actually affected,” Siskind said.
Fourteen House Democrats signed a letter Tuesday demanding the Trump administration release Khalil from DHS custody.
“We must be extremely clear: this is an attempt to criminalize political protest and is a direct assault on the freedom of speech of everyone in this country,” the letter, championed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian in Congress, reads. “Khalil’s arrest is an act of anti-Palestinian racism intended to silence the Palestine solidarity movement in this country, but this lawless abuse of power and political repression is a threat to all Americans.”
But the president has signaled the apprehension of Khalil is just “the first of many to come.”
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“Many are not students, they are paid agitators,” Trump posted on social media. “We will find, apprehend and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”
In the fall of 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed state universities in Florida to ban chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on campuses, alleging that the organization provided support for Hamas militants who attacked Israel.
While some universities complied and disbanded the pro-Palestinian group’s chapters, others filed lawsuits on constitutional grounds.
Demonstrations broke out at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Los Angeles and in New York’s Washington Square Park Tuesday to protest the arrest of Khalil.
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David Catanese is a national political correspondent for McClatchy in Washington. He’s covered campaigns for more than a decade, previously working at U.S. News & World Report and Politico. Prior to that he was a television reporter for NBC affiliates in Missouri and North Dakota. You can send tips, smart takes and critiques to dcatanese@mcclatchydc.com.