Trump says arrest of Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests is first of
Washington — President Trump warned Monday that this weekend’s arrest of outstanding Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil by federal immigration authorities is the primary “of many to come back” amid his administration’s crackdown on college students and alleged “agitators” protesting Israel’s struggle with Hamas in Gaza.
The president wrote in a put up on his social media platform Fact Social that his administration “won’t tolerate” what he mentioned is “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American” exercise on faculty campuses throughout the nation, and claimed the protests are being waged by “paid agitators,” slightly than college students. As a scholar at Columbia College final spring, Khalil helped lead demonstrations protesting Israel and the struggle in Gaza.
“We’ll discover, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our nation — by no means to return once more,” Mr. Trump wrote. “In case you help terrorism, together with the slaughtering of harmless males, girls, and kids, your presence is opposite to our nationwide and international coverage pursuits, and you aren’t welcome right here. We anticipate each considered one of America’s Schools and Universities to conform.”
The president mentioned the Saturday night time arrest of Khalil is “the primary arrest of many to come back.”
Final 12 months, Khalil and different Columbia college students arrange an encampment on the college’s major garden to protest the continued struggle within the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which Israel launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist assault. Greater than 1,200 folks in southern Israel had been killed within the bloodbath and one other 251 had been taken hostage. Tens of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed within the combating since, based on the Gaza Well being Ministry.
Khalil’s lawyer, Amy Greer, mentioned in an announcement that he was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers Saturday night time. Greer mentioned the ICE brokers mentioned Khalil’s scholar visa had been revoked, however Greer famous that he’s a U.S. inexperienced card holder.
She has since filed a petition on Khalil’s behalf difficult his arrest and detention. Greer mentioned in her assertion that immigration authorities additionally threatened to arrest Khalil’s spouse, who’s a U.S. citizen and eight months pregnant.
“We’ll vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud’s rights in courtroom, and can proceed our efforts to proper this horrible and inexcusable — and calculated — improper dedicated towards him,” Greer mentioned. “ICE’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. authorities’s open repression of scholar activism and political speech, particularly focusing on college students at Columbia College for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza. The U.S. authorities has made clear that they are going to use immigration enforcement as a software to suppress that speech.”
The Division of Homeland Safety mentioned in an announcement that Khalil’s arrest was “in help of President Trump’s government orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.” The company alleged that Khalil “led actions aligned to Hamas, a delegated terrorist group.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned on X that the Trump administration “will likely be revoking the visas and/or inexperienced playing cards of Hamas supporters in America to allow them to be deported.”
An internet ICE database states that Khalil is being held on the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Middle in Jena, Louisiana, and lists his birthplace as Syria.
Since returning to the White Home for his second time period, Mr. Trump and his administration have taken quite a few steps in response to final 12 months’s protests on faculty campuses and antisemitic incidents.
Amongst these was an government order signed by the president in late January that pledged to revoke scholar visas and deport “Hamas sympathizers.” The order additionally directed the Justice Division to “quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and examine and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American faculties and universities.”
The Division of Training has additionally introduced investigations into 5 universities, together with Columbia, the place there have been reported incidents of antisemitic harassment. On Friday, the Trump administration moved to cancel $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia.
Mr. Trump has individually threatened to strip federal funding for faculties and universities that permit “unlawful protests.”
“Agitators will likely be imprisoned/or completely despatched again to the nation from which they got here,” he wrote on social media final week. “American college students will likely be completely expelled or, relying [on] the crime, arrested.”
The American Civil Liberties Union condemned Khalil’s arrest, calling it “unprecedented, unlawful and un-American,” and urged the Trump administration to return him to New York and launch him from custody.
“The federal authorities is claiming the authority to deport folks with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their inexperienced playing cards for advocating positions that the federal government opposes,” Ben Wizner, director of its Speech, Privateness, and Know-how Challenge, mentioned in an announcement. “To be clear: The First Modification protects everybody within the U.S. The federal government’s actions are clearly supposed to intimidate and chill speech on one facet of a public debate.”
