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Mahmoud Khalil, an Algerian of Palestinian ancestry, served as a student negotiator during talks with university staff.
ADVERTISEMENTA pro-Palestinian activist who played a prominent role in Columbia University protests against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza was detained in New York on Saturday evening, his lawyer has said. The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil marks a major development in the Trump administration’s pledge to arrest and deport international students involved in what it calls antisemitic campus demonstrations against Israel. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Khalil at his university-owned flat in New York on Saturday evening, according to his lawyer Amy Greer, who said that, as of Sunday evening, she did not know where her client was being detained. The ICE officials threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, who is eight months pregnant, Greer added. In a phone call she had with one of the agents during the arrest, Greer said she was told that the State Department was seeking to cancel Khalil’s student visa. After she informed them that Khalil was in fact living in the US with permanent Green Card residency, the official said they would attempt to revoke that instead, Greer added. “We have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained. This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats,” the lawyer said. Khalil’s arrest was confirmed on Sunday by Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, who said it was carried out “in support of President (Donald) Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism”. McLaughlin alleged that Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian origin, had “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation”. She has not provided any evidence to back the claims.Responding to his arrest, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to X to say that Khalil’s detention was just the start. “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,” he said on Sunday, without providing any evidence against Khalil.Meanwhile, critics said that the Trump administration was acting out of self-interest.“This has the appearance of a retaliatory action against someone who expressed an opinion the Trump administration didn’t like,” said Camille Mackler, founder of Immigrant ARC, a coalition of legal service providers in New York.Khalil, who recently graduated from Columbia University with a master’s in international affairs, served as a negotiator for students in their talks with university officials during the protests at Columbia.One of the demonstrators’ demands was for the university to divest from companies tied to Israel. ADVERTISEMENTAs a result of Khalil’s visible role, pro-Israeli activists have called in recent weeks for the Trump administration to take action against him. Since starting his second presidential term, Trump has promised to go after people involved in what he calls “illegal protests” against Israel. “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,” he said on his social media site Truth Social last Tuesday. On Friday, the US government said it was cutting $400 million (€368.7m) in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over its campus protests against the war in Gaza. ADVERTISEMENT
