Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian graduate student who played a prominent role in protests against Israel at Columbia University, according to his attorney.
Mahmoud Khalil was inside a university-owned residence Saturday night near Columbia’s Manhattan campus when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered his apartment and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told The Associated Press.
Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that too, according to the lawyer.
The arrest appears to be among the first known actions under President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport international students who joined the protests against the war in Gaza that swept college campuses last spring. His administration has claimed participants forfeited their rights to remain in the country by supporting Hamas, a terror organization.
When ICE agents arrived at the campus building Saturday, they also threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, Greer said. The authorities declined to say why Khalil was being arrested, according to the attorney.
They were initially told he was transferred to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But when Khalil’s wife tried to visit Sunday, she learned he was not there — and may have been transferred as far away as Louisiana, Greer said.
“We have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained,” Greer told the AP. “This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats.”
In a statement to NBC News on Sunday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Khalil was arrested in coordination with ICE and the State Department “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”
“Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” McLaughlin said.
A Columbia spokesperson said law enforcement agents must produce a warrant before entering university property, but declined to say if the school had received one ahead of Khalil’s arrest. The spokesperson also declined to comment on Khalil’s detention.
Messages seeking comment were left Sunday with the State Department and ICE.
In a message shared on X Sunday evening, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
DHS can initiate deportation proceedings against green card holders for a broad range alleged criminal activity, including supporting a terror group. It would ultimately be up to an immigration judge to revoke someone’s permanent resident status, according to Camille Mackler, founder of Immigrant ARC, a coalition of legal service providers in New York.
“This has the appearance of a retaliatory action against someone who expressed an opinion the Trump administration didn’t like,” Mackler said.
Khalil served as a negotiator for students as they bargained with university officials over an end to the tent encampment erected on campus last spring, a role that made him one of the most visible activists in support of the movement.
He was also among those under investigation by a new Columbia University office that has brought disciplinary charges against dozens of students for their pro-Palestinian activism, according to records shared with the AP.
The investigations come as the Trump administration has followed through on its threat to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to Columbia because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus.
The university’s allegations against Khalil focused on his involvement in the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group. He faced sanctions for potentially helping to organize an “unauthorized marching event” in which participants glorified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and playing a “substantial role” in the circulation of social media posts criticizing Zionism, among other acts of alleged discrimination.
“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 last week.
“They just want to show Congress and right-wing politicians that they’re doing something, regardless of the stakes for students,” he added. “It’s mainly an office to chill pro-Palestine speech.”
