An immigrant Palestinian student was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for his prominent role in leading the protests at Columbia University.
The development is the latest escalation in President Donald Trump's efforts to ramp up the detention and deportation of student activists. The student activist was identified as Mahmoud Khalil, who was a graduate student at Columbia until last December.
Arrest of Palestinian Student
At the time of the arrest, Khalil was said to be inside his university-owned apartment on Saturday night when ICE agents came in. They allegedly took him into custody, as revealed by the student's attorney, Amy Greer.
The attorney was reportedly able to speak with the ICE agents via phone during the time that Khalil was arrested. They said that they were acting on State Department orders to revoke the Palestinian activist's student visa.
However, Greer argued that Khalil was a permanent resident of the United States and had a green card. According to the Associated Press, the ICE agent responded that they were simply revoking that one instead.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), confirmed Khalil's arrest in a statement on Sunday. She described the incident as being "in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism."
The arrest of the student activist is the first publicly known deportation effort under the Republican leader's promised crackdown on students who join protests against the Gaza war. These protests were known to have swept college campuses last spring.
Before his arrest, Khalil had been active in disruptive protests, including last week's takeover of the Milstein Library at Barnard College. The New York Post reported that videos and photographs uploaded on X showed him holding a bullhorn near the library entrance and speaking with school administrators.
Donald Trump's Deportation Efforts
That particular protest also featured violent propaganda flyers that supposedly came directly from the "Hamas Media Office." It included a pamphlet that was titled "Our Narrative... Operation Al-Aqsa Flood."
That particular document justified the group's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the death of 1,200 people. The incident also led to the reported raping of women, execution of families, and taking of hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Following Khalil's arrest, Greer said that they were informed the student activist was initially transferred to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. However, his wife, a U.S. citizen, was threatened with arrest by the agents as well, who said that he was not being detained there, as per BBC.
