Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Saturday (March 8, 2025) entered the university apartment of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian student activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student encampment movement, claiming they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney.
Later in the day, the Department of Homeland Security justified Mr. Khalil’s arrest stating his activities “aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation.”
“On March 9, 2025, in support of President [Donald] Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student. Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security,” it wrote on social media platform X.
This comes a day after the Trump administration moved to cancel $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
Mr. Khalil, a green-card holder and a graduate student at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, was one of the lead negotiators on behalf of pro-Palestine protesters at 2024’s Gaza solidarity encampment in the university.
His lawyer, Amy E. Greer, in a statement issued on Sunday (March 9, 2025) said they were not aware of his whereabouts after initial reports of him being detained in an ICE centre. “Last night ICE agents wrongfully arrested Mahmoud Khalil, claiming his student visa was revoked – even though Mahmoud is a legal permanent resident (green card) and not in the U.S. on a student visa. Confronted with that fact, the ICE agents detained him anyway,” she said.
Ms. Greer said they filed a habeas corpus petition on Mr. Khalil’s behalf challenging the validity of his arrest and detention.
“Currently we do not know Mahmoud’s precise whereabouts. Initially we were informed this morning that he had been transferred to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. However, when his wife – a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant and was threatened with arrest as well by the ICE agents last night – tried to visit him there today, she was told he is not detained there,” she added.
According to the ICE website’s detainee locator Mr. Khalil, as of Monday (March 10, 2025), could be at an immigration detention facility in Jena, Louisiana.
In a post on X, Secretary of State Marco Rubio late on Sunday (March 9, 2025) said, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported”.
A statement by the pro-Palestine group Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG) claimed that Mr. Khalil was “abducted and detained without the physical demonstration of a warrant or officially filed charges.” According to WAWOG, DHS agents informed Mr. Khalil that the U.S. Department of State had revoked his student visa. The group said this was “despite the fact that he has a green card, not a visa, and is a lawful permanent resident.”
Mr. Khalil was returning from an iftar, breaking the day-long fast observed by many Muslims during the month of Ramzan, according to news website DropSite.
Mr. Trump, in a social media post on Monday (March 10, 2025), confirmed the arrest of Mr. Kahlil. “Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Kahlil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University, “ the President wrote in his post.
He added that “This is the first arrest of many to come”.
In a series of statements and announcements attacking pro-Palestine protests across college campuses in the country, the Trump administration last week said it would begin revoking visas of “ Hamas sympathisers,” specifically citing Columbia University students.
“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before,” a fact-sheet issued by the White House on January 30 said.
Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Mr. Trump had repeatedly pledged to bring “peace” to West Asia and end the war in Gaza. However, last month, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he revealed a far more ambitious vision: seizing control of Gaza and transforming it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Critics condemned the proposal as a thinly veiled plan for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population.
Mr. Trump specifically urged Egypt and Jordan to absorb the displaced Palestinian population, while proposing that the United States would “own” the coastal territory. Later, in a Fox News interview, Mr. Trump doubled down, making it clear that the relocation would be permanent, with no right of return for Palestinians.
His administration last month also released a promotional video featuring a fictional ‘Trump Gaza’ — a gaudy resort showcasing bearded men in bikinis, a shirtless Trump, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The video was widely condemned as insensitive and inflammatory, even by members of his own party.
On Wednesday (March 5, 2025), Columbia University’s Barnard College saw the deployment of New York Police Department officers again on campus, the third time since the start of the protests on campus since October 7, 2023. A sit-in protest was called by students at Milstein Library at Barnard College protesting the recent expulsion of three Barnard students over pro-Palestine activism.
The prestigious Ivy League school has been at the centre of a firestorm last year over claims of “anti-Semitism” triggered by campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. Mr. Khalil’s detention also came following an online campaign against him by pro-Israel groups and individuals.
In a statement issued on Sunday (March 9, 2025) Columbia University acknowledged the presence of ICE on campus issuing a protocol for students on its website but made no comments regarding Mr. Khalil’s detention.
“There have been reports of ICE around campus. Columbia has and will continue to follow the law. Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings. Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community,” it said.
The university also issued a “Protocol for potential visits to campus By U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.”
“This protocol has been posted to inform and assist affiliates; it is consistent with past practice. Can ICE agents access campus or University buildings without a warrant? In general, ICE agents must have a judicial warrant or subpoena to access non-public areas (areas not open to the public such as classrooms, housing, and areas requiring CUID). Exigent circumstances may allow for access to University buildings or people without a warrant. Faculty/staff should not interfere and should immediately contact Public Safety as described below. Faculty/staff should document the activities they observe, if possible without obstructing the agents,” it said.
The Trump administration has continued to target universities, threatening to pull funding from schools that allowed what he called “illegal protests.”
Columbia has over $5 billion in federal grant commitments at present.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any college, school, or university that allows illegal protests,” Mr. Trump had posted on social media last week. “Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!”
The President had also said a ‘Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism’ would visit Columbia University, George Washington University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Northwestern University, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Minnesota and the University of Southern California due to anti-Semitic incidents at those schools.
(Anisha Dutta is a freelance journalist based in New York)
Published – March 11, 2025 05:00 am IST
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