During a public showdown on Monday, March 10, 2025, in New York City, a group of activists vocalized their support for Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian advocate. The same day, President Donald Trump delivered a stern statement cautioning of an impending increase in arrests related to on-campus protests against Israeli actions and Gaza conflict. This proclamation was initially triggered by the arrest and anticipatory deportation of Khalil, a lawful U.S. resident and former graduate student at Columbia University who was key in organizing these protests.
Khalil was taken into custody by federal immigration officers in New York and transported to an immigration detainment facility in Louisiana the preceding weekend. Posting on social media, President Trump highlighted that Columbia and other nationwide Universities harbor more students who partake in activities that he described as ‘pro-terrorist’, ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘anti-American’. He maintained his stern stance by emphasizing his administration’s intentions to identify, arrest, and deport these ‘terrorist sympathizers’ from the U.S., vowing they would ‘never to return again’.
Despite President Trump’s stringent warning, a federal judge in New York City ruled that Khalil’s deportation should be put on hold as the court deliberated over the legal challenge put forth by his team of attorneys. To discuss the matter further, a court session was appointed for the following Wednesday. Khalil’s detainment resulted in a wave of indignation from various civil rights organizations and advocates for freedom of speech who criticized the administration for what they viewed as an abuse of its immigration enforcement power in an attempt to curtail critique of Israeli actions.
Khalil, who is 30, marks the first known case of a person being detained for deportation in line with the Trump administration’s promised enforcement against student protests. In another attempted case, federal immigration authorities were unable to take into custody a second international student from Columbia, thwarted by their inability to gain entry into her apartment. Interestingly, Khalil faced no criminal charges pertaining to his activism.
President Trump, however, has declared that activists relinquish their right to live in the US by partaking in protests he personally equates with supporting Hamas, an organization which launched an assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, and subsequently placed on the U.S.’s terrorists organization list. Yet, Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s student leaders, including Khalil, rebuff accusations of antisemitism. They insist their stance is a component of a more comprehensive anti-war movement which encompasses Jewish students and organizations.
Despite this assertion, the protest coalition has occasionally expressed support for prominent figures within Hamas and Hezbollah – the latter being another Islamist organization which the U.S. identifies as a terrorist group. In other developments, the U.S. Education Department released a notification on the same day, addressed to about 60 colleges that include Ivy Leagues like Harvard and Cornell. Warned through this statement, these institutions risk losing federal funding if they fail to uphold civil rights laws against antisemitism and ensure that access to campus facilities and educational opportunities remains uninterrupted.
The Trump administration has already made the decisive move to withdraw a $400 million funding from Columbia University. Amidst the unfolding events, a contingent of Columbia faculty members expressed their worries on Monday, noting a concern that Khalil’s arrest seems aimed at repressing the freedom of speech among those affiliated with the university who do not hold U.S. citizenship.
According to Khalil’s legal counsel, the government is retaliating against him in response to his constitutionally protected advocacy for Palestinian human rights. Under regular circumstances, to expel a person with U.S. permanent residency as Khalil does, the government would need compelling evidence like serious crime conviction.
Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, arrived in the U.S. in 2022 to study at Columbia. His life subsequently intertwined with America when he married a U.S. citizen, and their unborn baby is currently eight months in gestation. Khalil emerged into the spotlight during numerous Columbia protests in the previous year, serving as a negotiator on behalf of pro-Palestinian and Muslim student activists.
This role brought him into direct interactions with the university’s administration and grabbed the attention of pro-Israel allies. Brought under scrutiny, Khalil was investigated by a newly instituted disciplinary body at Columbia University. The committee accused Khalil of possibly infringing upon a new harassment policy by labeling a university official a ‘genocidal dean’ on the internet. However, Khalil refuted the accusation, asserting that he merely acted as a spokesperson for protesters, rejecting any implications of a leadership role.
Khalil clarified, ‘The allegations posit me as the leader of CUAD or managing the social media, which isn’t accurate,’ using the abbreviation for Columbia University Apartheid Divest. Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs granted Khalil a master’s degree last semester, which followed his computer science degree from the Lebanese American University in Beirut.
On Monday, a couple hundred protesters amassed near a Manhattan-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in a public call to demand Khalil’s release from custody. Meanwhile, woven into the tapestry of opinions at Columbia, some students expressed deep apprehension regarding the potential revocation of Khalil’s green card.
Pearson Lund, a sophomore at Columbia and a physics student voiced his concern stating, ‘At what point does this process stop?’ Lund, along with others, harbor uncertainties and apprehensions over the potential implications of the administration’s heavy-handed actions on its student body and advocates for causes they hold near and dear.