Activist arrested for protests at Columbia faces deportation

Federal immigration agents on Sunday arrested Mahmoud Khalil over allegations that he led activities aligned with the Hamas terrorist organization, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Kahlil was at his Columbia University-owned apartment with his wife when officials took him into custody, his attorney told the Associated Press. He completed his graduate studies in December and holds a green card that makes him a permanent resident of the United States, said his attorney, Amy Greer. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a link to the AP story on social media while writing that the government planned to revoke the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they could be deported. The DHS can initiate deportation proceedings against green card holders if they commit certain crimes or support a terror group.

What else has been reported and said about the arrest?

• During his arrest, immigration officials initially informed the couple that the State Department had revoked his student visa before adding that it had also revoked his green card, according to the pro-Palestine organization Writers Against the War on Gaza.

• Federal officials arrested Khalil in support of President Donald Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the Columbia Spectator.

• The New York Civil Liberties Union said the arrest violated Khalil’s First Amendment rights.

• The New York Post reported that Khalil was born in Syria in 1995 and had already earned an undergraduate degree in Beirut when he enrolled at Columbia.

What did Khalil do? As an activist, he helped lead pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia’s campus last spring. Thousands of students participated in the so-called Gaza Solidarity Encampment that eventually led the university to move classes online, cancel graduation, and prompted some organizations to pull funding from the school. Numerous university campuses across the country saw similarly intense protests last spring.

How has the Trump administration responded to such demonstrations? A group of federal agencies last week said they were canceling about $400 million in grants and contracts to the university over its failures to protect Jewish students from harassment during the protests. The action came after a federal task force reviewed the school’s federal contracts and grants.

What happens next? Khalil’s lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf challenging the validity of his arrest, Greer said. He is being held by immigration agents pending an appearance before an immigration judge. It is unclear where Khalil is being held, Greer said, and his wife, who is a U.S. citizen and is eight months pregnant, has not been told where he was transferred. Meanwhile, more than 930,000 people have signed a petition demanding he be released immediately. Another organization called The People's Forum organized a rally in Federal Plaza in New York City on Monday to protest his arrest.

Dig deeper: Read Lael Weinberger’s opinion column about how universities can respond to chaos on campus while respecting speech.