Following through on President Donald Trump’s recent promise to detain foreign “agitators” who participate in illegal forms of protest, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Saturday arrested a Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s anti-Israel encampment last year, his lawyer said.
Mahmoud Khalil is a member of Columbia’s anti-Israel coalition, the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), and was one of the lead negotiators for the school’s infamous encampment. A graduate student at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs who completed his undergraduate degree in Beirut, Khalil told the Columbia Daily Spectator that he was afraid of losing his student visa if he participated in the protests.
Federal immigration authorities arrested Khalil at his university-owned apartment over the weekend, his lawyer Amy Greer told the Associated Press. One agent told Greer that ICE was executing a Department of State order to revoke Khalil’s visa and green card, the AP reported. He is allegedly being held at Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility in New Jersey.
“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.”
The graduate student was a loud supporter of Columbia’s student protest effort. When classes resumed in September 2024, Khalil told the AP that “as long as Columbia continues to invest and to benefit from Israeli apartheid, the students will continue to resist.” In April 2024, Khalil called the students leading the encampment “a gift to Columbia” and accused the school of “profiting and . . . contributing to the genocide of [Palestinians].”
Columbia suspended Khalil for his involvement in the encampment, then reversed the suspension days later. During the April protests, dozens of Columbia students were arrested after seizing and occupying Hamilton Hall for nearly one day.
The university said in a statement on Sunday in response to “reports of ICE around campus” that “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,” the statement read. “Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community.”
Khalil was reportedly a political affairs officer with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for a number of months in 2023. President Donald Trump ended U.S. participation in UNRWA in February, citing the humanitarian organization’s extensive ties to Hamas.
Trump suspended $400 million in federal grants to Columbia last week over concerns about the campus’s inability to address campus anti-semitism. The president has also said that he will arrest and deport foreign student “agitators” who participate in pro-Hamas protests, and that his administration will investigate a host of other universities in relation to reports of rampant anti-semitism on campuses.
“Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses – only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”