The Trump administration detained a pro-Palestine activist Saturday night in a chilling assault on free speech.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader in the Columbia University protest movement, despite his being a green card holder. Initially, they told his lawyer, Amy Greer, that his student visa was being revoked, even though he didn’t have one. When ICE agents were informed over the phone by Greer that Khalil has a green card, they reportedly hung up the phone on her.
“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,” a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted about Khalil’s arrest on X Sunday, adding, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
It was unknown where Khalil was being held for days, but on Monday, the ICE locator finally showed him in the LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana. His wife is eight months pregnant and a U.S. citizen.
“ICE’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” Greer said. “The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech.”
On Friday, the Trump administration announced that it was canceling $400 million in federal grants to Columbia over its “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” a pointed reference to its pro-Palestine protest movement. Last week, Trump himself posted on Truth Social, “Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” threatening to deport foreign students who take part in such protests.
Khalil’s detention appears both to follow up Trump’s threat against pro-Palestine protesters and to continue to make an example out of Columbia University, despite the institution’s crackdown on student activists. Legal challenges to this assault on the First Amendment are surely coming, but it remains to be seen if the legal system will reinforce the right to free speech or strengthen the Trump administration’s draconian efforts.
