A leader in Columbia’s student protest movement against the Israeli invasion of Gaza was arrested by federal immigration authorities on Saturday night. Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who graduated from the Ivy League school in December, was arrested by several Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers in the building of his apartment, according to his lawyer, Amy Greer, who spoke to the Associated Press. Greer says that an ICE official told her they were arresting Khalil on orders from the State Department to revoke his student visa, and when she told them he was no longer a student and was actually a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said that was revoked as well.
A nationwide protest movement against the Israeli invasion of Gaza erupted on college campuses last spring, with student protesters at Columbia forming an encampment on the campus’ main quad and briefly occupying Hamilton Hall, demanding that the institution divest from entities connected to the occupation. The NYPD was sent in on two occasions to arrest protesters en masse and destroy the encampment, even as the university administration repeatedly stated they would not be allowed on campus. Student participants were also suspended after negotiations with the university over their divestment demands collapsed.
Khalil was one of the student organizers for the movement. Similar encampments occurred at campuses across the country in spring of 2024, from UNC Chapel Hill to UCLA, some of which also resulted in violent attacks from police and counter-demonstrators. More recently, Columbia has set up a new disciplinary office conducting secretive investigations into students engaging in pro-Palestine activism, keeping alleged evidence against them secret unless they agree to sign non-disclosure agreements. A spokesperson for the school told Greer that law enforcement agents must produce a warrant before entering university property, but would not confirm if the ICE agents who arrested Khalil had one.
Khalil’s arrest comes days after President Trump vowed to take a hard line on the matter. “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” he declared on Truth Social last Tuesday, adding that “agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.” Despite Columbia’s treatment of peaceful protesters, the Trump administration made good on the president’s threat, cancelling $400 million in grants and contracts with Columbia two days after his social media post.
Khalil is currently being held at an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with Greer saying that she has not received further information as to why he was arrested. The Trump administration widened the grounds for deporting green card holders with the implementation of the 2025 Immigration Rules, which can now be done for minor legal infractions and suspected national security concerns. Protests are constitutionally protected speech under the 1st Amendment. La Voce reached out to the State Department for details concerning the order to revoke Mahmoud Khalil’s green card, but has not received an answer as of this writing.
