The federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian graduate student who played a prominent role in protests against Israel at the University of Columbium, according to his lawyer.
Mahmoud Khalil was in the University of Saturday near Columbia’s Manhattan Campus, when several immigration and customs agents entered his apartment and took him to custody, his lawyer, Amy Greer, told the associates.
Greer said he talked to the phone with one of the ice agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on the command of the state department to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Notified by a lawyer that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resistance with green cardboard, the agent said that they also surrender to lawyers.
Arrestation was among the first known actions under the President Donald Trump to deport international students who joined protests against the war in Gaza, which was springed in the faculties last spring. His administration claimed that the participants took their rights to stay in the country supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization.
When the ice agents arrived in the campus building on Saturday, they threatened and arrest Khalil’s wife, an American citizen who became pregnant for eight months, said a pregnant woman. Authorities refused to say why Khalil was arrested, according to the lawyer.
They originally said that he was transferred to the Immigration Custody in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But when his wife tried to visit Sunday, she learned that she had no there – and maybe he was transferred as far as Louisiana, Greer said.
“We couldn’t get more details about why he was detained,” Greer App said. “This is clear escalation. Administration follows through its threats.”
Columbia spokesman said the law enforcement agents must produce an order before they enter university property, but refused to say whether the school received one advantage in Halil. The spokesperson also refused to comment on Khalil’s custody.
The messages seeking a comment are abandoned on Sunday with the State Department, the Department of Homeland and Ice.
In a message Divided on X Sunday evening, State Secretary Marco Rubio said the administration would revoke visas and / or green maps of Hamas supporters in America, so they can be deported. “
Department of Homeland Security can initiate deportation procedure against green card holder for a wide range of alleged criminal activities, including the support of the terrorist group. Ultimately would be at the immigration judge to revoke one’s permanent status of permanent residents, according to Camille Mackler, the founding of the immigrant port, coalition of legal providers in New York.
“This has a reprisal look against someone who expressed an opinion, the trump card did not like,” Mackler said.
Khalil served as a negotiator for students while negotiating with university officials through the end of the tent in the campus last spring, the role of him who made him one of the most visible activists to support the movement.
He was among them Under the investigation of the new Columbia University This brought disciplinary charges against dozens of students for their pro-Palestinian activism, according to the records shared with the AP.
Investigations come as Trump administration followed a threat to reduce hundreds of millions of dollars in finishing Colombia because of what the government describes as a failure to campus Ivy League campus.
The allegations of the University of Khalil focused on his participation in the company Columbia university divest group. They faced sanctions for potentially assisting in the organization of the “unauthorized marshal event” in which the participants celebrated Hamasov 7. October, 2023, attack and playing “significant roles” in the circulation of Zionism, among other acts of alleged discrimination.
“I have about 13 allegations against me, most of them are the media social media that I had nothing to do,” Khalil said in the AP last week.
“They just want to show Congress and right-wing politicians who do something, regardless of the roles for students,” he added. “It is mainly the Office of Cooling of Pro-Palestine Speech.”
2025-03-09 23:52:00
