Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by ICE in what Trump referred to as the first of many such arrests.
On Saturday, Homeland Security agents arrested Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil for his role in organizing pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.
Khalil’s lawyers said he was transferred to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana after his arrest.
After he was approached by DHS agents, he called his lawyer Amy Greer, who spoke directly to one of the agents.
Greer said that the agent told her Khalil’s student visa had been revoked by the State Department. She told the agent Khalil was a lawful permanent resident, and the agent replied that the department “revoked that too” and hung up when she requested a warrant.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
According to Columbia’s student newspaper, Khalil was a lead spokesperson for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest during the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in April of 2024. He represented demonstrators in his interactions with the university.
Khalil came to the United States in 2022 to earn his master’s degree at Columbia.
President Trump has vowed to combat antisemitism on college campuses nationwide, and Columbia University has become ground zero for addressing the problem.
Trump said in a social media post, “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”
At Columbia, encampments of students were seen on campus throughout the past year in response to the war in Gaza. This inspired similar protests on college campuses across the country.
Antisemitism on college campuses rose to an alarming level, and institutions have been criticized for their failure to protect Jewish students.
About $400 million of Columbia’s grants and contracts have been cancelled by federal agencies because of this failure.
President Trump has shown no signs of lessening the crackdown on universities and their student protesters. According to a White House official, the Department of Homeland Security started looking for students at Columbia after Trump issued his antisemitism executive order in January.
The order calls on the government to use “all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”
The same official said Khalil had participated in “pro-Hamas rallies” and distributed fliers. The agency presented the information to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and he revoked Khalil’s legal status. The arrest was related to national security, according to the administration.
Leo Terrell, leader of the Justice Department’s antisemitism task force, said in a recent interview, “The arrest of this individual…should serve as a deterrent.”
