Ice judgment Palestinian activist who helped in leading the anti-war protests of Columbia

NEW YORK (AP) – Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian graduate student who played a prominent role in that of last spring Anti-Israel Protests at Columbia UniversityAccording to his lawyer.

Mahmoud Khalil was on Saturday evening in his residence in the university near the COLUMBIA Campus in Columbia when various immigration and customs enforcement agents entered the building and took him into detention, his lawyer, Amy Greer, told The Associated Press.

Greer said that she spoke by telephone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to withdraw the student visa of Khalil. Informed by the lawyer that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said that they also caught up with that, according to the lawyer.

The arrest seemed like one of the first known actions under the promise of President Donald Trump to deport international students who participated in the protests against the war in Gaza who wiped university campuses last spring. His administration has claimed that participants have forfeited their rights to remain in the country by supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization.

When Ice Agents arrived at the Campus building on Saturday, they also threatened to arrest the wife of Khalil, an American citizen that is eight months pregnant, Greer said. The authorities refused to say why Khalil was arrested, according to the lawyer.

It was initially told that he was being transferred to an immigration -detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But when his wife tried to visit on Sunday, she heard that he wasn’t there – and may be as far away as Louisiana, Greer said.

“We have not been able to get any details about why he is being held,” Greer told the AP. “This is a clear escalation. The administration follows its threats. “

A Columbia spokesperson said that law enforcement agents should produce an order before they would go to the possession of universities, but refused to say whether the school had received one prior to the arrest of Khalil. The spokesperson also refused to comment on the detention of Khalil.

Messages looking for comments were left on Sunday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security and Ice.

In one message Part on X Sunday evening, Minister of Foreign Affairs Marco Rubio said that the administration is “the Visa and/or green cards from Hamas supporters in America so that they can be deported.”

The Department of Homeland Security can start deportation procedures against green cardholders for a wide range of alleged criminal activities, including supporting a terror group. According to Camille Mackler, founder of immigrant Arc, a coalition of legal service providers in New York, an immigration judge would eventually withdraw to withdraw a person’s permanent resident status.

“This looks like a retaliation action against someone who has expressed an opinion who did not like the Trump government,” said Mackler.

Khalil served as a negotiator for students while negotiating with university officials about an end to the tent camp that was founded on campus last spring, a role that made him one of the most visible activists to support the movement.

He was also one of those Research by a new office in Columbia University That has filed disciplinary charges against dozens of students for their pro-Palestinian activism, according to Records shared with the AP.

The investigations come as the Trump administration has followed by his threat To cut hundreds of millions of dollars in financing to Columbia because of what the government describes as the failure of the Ivy League school to purch anti -Semitism on campus.

The allegations of the University against Khalil concentrated on his involvement in the apartheid group of Columbia University. He was confronted with sanctions for the possibility of organizing an “unauthorized marching event” in which participants “glorify Hamas” on 7 October 2023, and play a “substantial role” in the circulation of social media posts that criticize Zionism, alongside other actions of alleged discrimination.

“I have about 13 allegations against me, most of them are social media messages that I had nothing to do with,” Khalil told the AP last week.

“They just want to show congress and right -wing politicians that they are doing something, regardless of the commitment to students,” he added. “It is primarily an office to cool pro-Palestinian speech.”