Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident of the United States who was a graduate student at Columbia University until December, was arrested on Saturday by agents of the immigration and customs service in New York and transported to an immigration prison in Louisiana.
As the Trump Administration represses the campus demonstrations against Israel and the War in Gaza, Mahmoud Khalil, a legal resident of the United States who was a postgraduate student at Columbia University until December, was arrested on Saturday by immigration and customs service agents (ICE) in New York and transported to an immigration arrest in Louisiana.
The Department of Internal Security stated that Khalil was arrested as a result of Trump executive orders prohibiting anti -Semitism. Khalil was not accused of any crime due to his activities during university campus last year.
“We know that there are more students in Columbia and other universities across the country who have been involved in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic and anti-American activities,” Trump wrote in a social media publication.
“We will find, arrest and deport these supporters of our country’s terrorism – never to return,” added the president.
Republican administration also warned about 60 colleges that could lose federal funding if they could not make their spaces safe for Jewish students.
The Department of Education said it would take measures if schools, including Harvard, Columbia and Cornell, did not comply with civil rights laws against anti -Semitism and guarantee “uninterrupted access” to campus facilities and education opportunities.
The Trump administration is already removing $ 400 million from Columbia and has threatened to cut another thousands of millions.
Detention generates immediate outrage
Khalil’s arrest raised the immediate outrage of civil rights and defenders of freedom of expression, who accused the administration of using their immigration control powers to repress criticism of Israel.
“The illegal decision of the internal security department of determining him only due to his peaceful activism against genocide represents a blatant attack on the guarantee of freedom of expression of the first amendment, immigration laws and the humanity of Palestinians,” the American-Islamic Relations Council said a Muslim National Group on Civil Rights.
Immigration federal authorities also visited a second international student in Columbia on Friday night and tried to take her in custody, but were not allowed to enter the apartment, according to a union representing the student.
The student was not identified and it is not known that reasons led the immigration and customs agency to visit.
The Student Workers of Columbia, a graduate student union that represents the student, said the three agents did not have a capture warrant and were “legitimately removed at the door.”
Khalil is the first person known to be detained for deportation under Trump’s promised repression of student protests.
Donald Trump argued that protesters lost the right to stay in the country for supporting the Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza.
Khalil and other Student Leaders of Columbia University Apartheid Divest rejected anti -Semitism allegations, stating that they are part of a broader antiguera movement that also includes students and Jewish groups.
However, the protest coalition sometimes also expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, another United States Islamic organization as a terrorist group.
It is not yet known when Khalil will have an audience at the Immigration Court. ICE spokesmen did not immediately provide details on your case.
Usually, the expulsion of a person who has permanent residence in the United States requires a high degree of demand, such as the fact that that person has been convicted of certain types of crimes.
Born in Syria, son of Palestinian parents, Khalil emerged as one of the most prominent activists in the protests in Columbia.
He served as a mediator on behalf of the Pro -Palestinian activists and Muslim students, a role that put him in direct contact with university leaders and the press – and caught the attention of Pro Israel activists, who in recent weeks have appealed to Trump administration to deport him.
