A pro-Palestinian activist who took a lead role in last year’s student protests at Columbia University in New York City is being held in immigration custody in Louisiana, records suggest, after he was detained over the weekend.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents told Syrian-born Mahmoud Khalil they were revoking his student visa and green card when they detained him at his university-owned apartment in Manhattan on Saturday, his attorney said.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed – without evidence – in a statement that the former student had “led activities aligned to Hamas”.
The Trump administration announced last week it was rescinding $400m (£310m) in federal grants to Columbia, accusing it of failing to fight antisemitism on campus.
Mr Khalil was initially taken to an immigration holding facility in New Jersey, according to ICE’s online locator. But when his wife tried to visit on Sunday, she was told he was not there, according to his lawyer.
The system indicated on Monday that Mr Khalil was being detained at a facility in the town of Jena, Louisiana.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that Mr Khalil had been taken into custody “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism”.
Amy Greer, his attorney, said her client is a legal permanent resident with a green card and married to an American citizen, who is eight months’ pregnant.
When ICE agents arrived at the campus building on Saturday, they also threatened to arrest Mr Khalil’s wife, according to the lawyer.
Columbia said in a statement that law enforcement agents can enter university property if they produce a warrant.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a news story on X about the arrest of Mr Khalil, commenting: “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported”.
Columbia was the epicentre last year of pro-Palestinian student protests nationwide against the war in Gaza and US support for Israel.
Mr Khalil was lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest when its protesters set up a huge tent encampment on the university lawn in protest against the Gaza war.
Some students also took control of an academic building for several hours before police entered the campus to arrest more than 100 protesters. Mr Khalil was not in that group.
He later told the BBC he had been temporarily suspended by the university, where he was a graduate student at the School of International and Public Affairs.
Some Jewish students at Columbia have said that rhetoric at the demonstrations at times crossed the line into antisemitism. Other Jewish students on campus have joined the pro-Palestinian protests.
President Donald Trump pledged earlier this month to halt federal funding for universities that allow “illegal” protests.
In a post on Truth Social, he also added that “agitators” would be “imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came”.
Jacob Hamburger, a visiting assistant professor at Cornell Law School, told the BBC that US authorities sometimes detain a lawful permanent resident if they have committed certain crimes.
But he said that “targeting individual protesters just for protesting … is highly unusual and something that we haven’t seen before, even under the first Trump administration”.
Speaking on Fox News, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan alleged that Mr Khalil had violated the terms of his visa by “locking down buildings and destroying property”.
“We’re going to send a strong message – anyone here on a foreign visa, you’re given a great – a right – to come to the greatest country on earth and study in our colleges, but when you come to study you have to obey the laws of this country,” he said.
The Israeli military launched its campaign against Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack into Israel on 7 October 2023, which left about 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage.
More than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s military action, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
By BBC News
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