**CHICAGO/ISTANBUL**
Demonstrators gathered in the American city of Chicago to demand the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by federal police for leading protests at Columbia University in New York.
Thousands in Chicago on Tuesday protested Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip and Khalil’s arrest, condemning his detention and the revocation of his green card while chanting slogans and holding signs.
President Donald Trump defended the arrest, calling Khalil a "foreign pro-Hamas student" and stating it was "the first arrest of many to come" as protesters vowed to keep denouncing human rights violations under his administration.
Lawyer and activist Jinan Chehade told Anadolu that thousands joined the protest in Chicago to demand Khalil's release. “Mahmoud Khalil is a Palestinian activist who was kidnapped from his home by this system, by this administration.”
Stressing that no force can silence or intimidate the demonstrators, Chehade said: “We are here in the millions across the US to say that we protect each other and we will never be silenced against the genocide in Gaza and our US taxpayer dollars going to pay for the ethnic cleansing and the occupation in Palestine.”
Khalil, a green card holder and a recent Columbia University graduate who helped lead a pro-Palestinian encampment last April, was arrested Saturday at his university-owned residence in New York.
According to Khalil’s lawyer, Amy Greer, Khalil was “wrongfully arrested” by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who claimed his student visa was revoked -- even though he is a legal permanent resident and not in the US on a student visa. He is married to a US citizen who is eight months pregnant.
US District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan blocked the deportation of Khalil from the US on Monday.
"To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise," he said in his ruling.
Dozens of demonstrators marched Monday for about half a mile to ICE headquarters in the US capital demanding the release of Khalil.
About a dozen protesters demonstrating in support of Khalil were arrested Tuesday, after clashing with New York City Police (NYPD). Two officers forced one protester to the ground while making an arrest.
The NYPD later said one person was charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration, while the 11 were given summonses.
While hundreds of demonstrators rallied across the US to demand the release of Khalil, US lawmakers and civil rights organizations took to social media to criticize his arrest.
Fourteen members of Congress, including Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley have signed a letter demanding his release.
They criticized his detention as an "attempt to criminalize political protest" and a "direct assault on freedom of speech."
Khalil's attorneys planned to file a petition Wednesday for his release from ICE facility in the state of Louisiana.
Ramzi Kassem, founder of the CLEAR Project, a legal aid nonprofit affiliated with the City University of New York (CUNY) that is representing Khalil in the petition, wrote on social media: “If our society remains attached to the rule of law, and if speech in the United States remains free, then no one should accept what happened to Mahmoud.”
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