Who Is the Palestinian Columbia Student Detained For His Protest Activity?
President Donald Trump promised last week to round up the “agitators” responsible for “illegal protests” on college campuses. Over the weekend, his administration claimed its first scalp: Mahmoud Khalil, a lead negotiator for pro-Palestinian protest camp at Columbia University.
Plainclothes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) showed up at Khalil’s university accommodations on Saturday night and detained him, claiming that his student visa was being revoked. When Khalil’s pregnant American wife showed the agents that he had a permanent residency rather than a student visa, “one agent was visibly confused and said on the phone, ‘He has a green card,'” according to a press release by Writers Against the War on Gaza.
The ICE agents then told Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer, over the phone that his green card was also being revoked, Greer told the Associated Press. Greer, who has filed a habeas corpus petition, could not find out where Khalil was being detained. ICE agents originally said Khalil was being sent to a facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, but his wife visited the center and was told that Khalil was not there, Greer told CNN.Â
ICE’s online detainee locator indicates that Khalil is currently being held in the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center. Greer’s law firm, Dratel & Lewis, did not immediately respond to a follow-up request for comment from Reason.
“On March 9, 2025, in support of President 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,” the Department of Homeland Security posted on X.
Just a few days before his detention, the AP quoted Khalil in an article about Columbia University’s new Office of Institutional Equity. The office, which was set up to fight “disciminatory harassment,” has focused heavily on pro-Palestinian protesters. Khalil told the AP that the office tried to put his graduation on hold because of “around 13 allegations
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