The White Home on Tuesday levied new allegations in opposition to Columbia graduate pupil Mahmoud Khalil amid an aggressive effort to deport him, accusing the Palestinian activist of organizing protests the place Hamas propaganda was distributed.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt alleged that Khalil had performed a task in organizing demonstrations at which flyers have been handed out bearing a emblem for Hamas, which she didn’t show.
“Mahmoud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges,” Leavitt mentioned at a press briefing, declining to offer examples of Khalil’s alleged involvement with the flyers. “He took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege by siding with terrorists.”
The feedback got here as stress mounted on federal immigration authorities to launch Khalil from custody after greater than a thousand New Yorkers took to the streets Monday.
Greater than 150 protesters led by Jewish college students at Columbia had gathered on campus Tuesday, demanding the college prohibit federal immigration brokers from campus.
“Columbia must commit to protecting its students and their right to free speech. We insist that the university immediately institute a policy prohibiting university officials from sharing information about students or staff to ICE or complying with ICE investigations into Columbia students or staff in the absence of a judicial warrant,” one protester who declined to share their identify mentioned.
“Federal agents must never be allowed to enter campus or university owned buildings under any circumstances without presenting a warrant signed by a judge.”
Khalil, a inexperienced card holder, remained detained at a processing middle in Jena, La., on Tuesday, three days after his arrest by plainclothes cops for the Division of Homeland Safety close to his Columbia-owned house in Morningside Heights. His spouse, a U.S. citizen who’s eight months pregnant, was threatened with arrest if she didn’t go away the scene, in line with Khalil’s legal professionals.
A federal choose on Wednesday is ready to think about the Trump administration’s aggressive effort to deport him for his involvement in protests in opposition to the Israeli authorities and U.S. involvement in bombings in Gaza and the West Financial institution.
Manhattan Federal Choose Jesse Furman, dealing with a habeas corpus petition filed by Khalil’s legal professionals, on Monday quickly slammed the brakes on the scholar activist’s deportation, saying he couldn’t be faraway from the nation “unless and until” he orders in any other case. Khalil’s authorized workforce has requested the choose to rule on the lawfulness of his detention and order his return to New York whereas his immigration matter individually performs out.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt, March 11, 2025. (AP Photograph/Evan Vucci)
A Palestinian native who grew up in Syria, Khalil, 30, accomplished his research at Columbia’s College of Worldwide and Public Affairs in December and had been set to graduate in Could. He performed a central position in final 12 months’s student-led demonstrations in opposition to Israel’s warfare on Gaza, appearing as a mediator between college workers and college students.
DHS brokers informed Khalil on Saturday evening that the State Division had revoked his pupil visa. Knowledgeable by his lawyer, Amy Greer, that Khalil wasn’t within the U.S. on a pupil visa however a inexperienced card, the brokers mentioned that it was being revoked with out point out of due course of. Inexperienced card holders are protected beneath the First and Fifth Amendments of the Structure.
Khalil has not been charged with against the law. In an interview with the conservative outlet The Free Press on Monday, an unnamed White Home official mentioned, “The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law,” however that Khalil threatened U.S. overseas coverage and nationwide safety pursuits.
Professional-Palestinian protesters name for the discharge of Mahmoud Khalil, on March 11, 2025, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams / New York Every day Information)
President Trump has threatened that Khalil is simply the primary overseas pupil activist who will face deportation proceedings, calling them “terrorist sympathizers” in a Monday Fact Social publish. The Trump administration has framed any criticism of the Israeli regime as antisemitic and supportive of Hamas, which the U.S. and lots of different international locations designate as a terrorist group.
“The remarks by government officials, including the President, on social media only confirm the purpose — and illegality — of Mahmoud’s detention,” Greer mentioned in a press release Monday.
“He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment. While tomorrow or thereafter the government may cite the law or process, that toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so.”
Khalil has staunchly denied that he has displayed hatred towards Jews or sympathy for Hamas in his protests for a ceasefire of Israel’s incursion in Gaza and the West Financial institution, which adopted the Oct. 7 terror assaults engineered by Hamas that claimed an estimated 1,200 lives. The Lancet in January reported roughly 64,000 Palestinians have been killed within the battle.
Barry Williams/ New York Every day Information
Police block pro-Palestinian protestors exterior Gracie Mansion on Tuesday. (Barry Williams/ New York Every day Information)
Axios final week reported that the State Division, in collaboration with DHS and the Division of Justice, deliberate to launch a brand new program reliant on AI referred to as “Catch and Revoke” that may goal overseas nationals who it determines to be “pro-Hamas.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is empowered beneath the Immigration Nationality Act of 1952 to revoke visas from anybody he believes “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” After Khalil’s arrest, Rubio shared a social media publish by DHS accusing the scholar activist of main “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
Protesters exterior the Low Library steps at Columbia College on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Manhattan. (Sheetal Banchariya / New York Every day Information)
Khalil’s arrest on ideological grounds has provoked widespread criticism from folks on all sides of the political spectrum and considerations about the way forward for the best to free speech. It got here because the Trump administration introduced greater than $400 million in cuts to assist Columbia, accusing the Ivy League establishment of failing to handle antisemitism.
In a press release Tuesday, a whole lot of former college students at Columbia’s College of Worldwide and Public Affairs (SIPA) referred to as on the college to ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement from campus, take motion to guard pupil protesters, publicly condemn Khalil’s detention, and use each out there technique of securing his launch.
“SIPA has continually undermined its own curriculum by stifling free speech and remaining silent about the Trump administration’s political targeting of a student activist and soon-to-be father,” the assertion learn.
“We are witnessing the breakdown of higher education institutions in real time as Columbia and others capitulate to a radical right-wing agenda by sacrificing free speech and critical thinking.”
Initially Printed: March 11, 2025 at 5:47 PM EDT
