ICE arrests Palestinian student activist behind Columbia University protests

• ICE agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student and prominent figure in the school’s pro-Palestinian protests and student encampments. Khalil’s green card was also revoked, by order of the U.S. State Department.
• Khalil’s arrest comes a little more than a month after President Trump signed an executive order targeting green card and visa holders, including students, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
• Khalil served as a student negotiator tasked with meeting with the school’s administrators as protests and encampments took shape on Columbia’s campus last spring.

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U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Palestinian activist responsible for helping lead the encampment movement at Columbia University. According to Mahmoud Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer, the ICE agents said they were ordered by the State Department to revoke his green card.

Greer told the Associated Press that Khalil was taken into custody by several ICE agents Saturday, March 8, while at his university-owned apartment near Columbia’s Manhattan campus.

The apartment is university property, and a spokesperson for Columbia told the AP that law enforcement agents would need a warrant before entering the apartment. However, the spokesperson declined to comment on Khalil’s arrest or if a warrant was produced.

Greer said that she spoke to one of the ICE agents by phone. They informed her that the State Department had issued an order to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Khalil graduated in December. Greer reportedly told the agent that Khalil also had a green card. However, the agent said they were revoking that too.

Khalil is currently at an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His wife, who is eight months pregnant, has not been told why he was detained.

Khalil’s arrest comes a little more than a month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at combatting perceived antisemitism on college campuses. The order specifically targeted non-U.S. citizens living in the U.S. on green cards or visas, including students, who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

“We have not been able to get any more details about why [Khalil] is being detained,” Greer told The AP. “This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats.”

Khalil, who served as a student negotiator tasked with meeting with university administrators, was a prominent figure during last year’s pro-Palestinian protests and encampments. Those actions lasted from the spring until classes ended for summer break.

When students returned in September, Khalil reiterated the students’ demands, telling the AP, “As long as Columbia continues to invest and to benefit from Israeli apartheid, the students will continue to resist.”

Columbia has become a focal point in the Trump administration’s fight against criticism of Israel since it went to war with Hamas following the militant group’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023. On Friday, March 7, Trump’s Department of Education announced it would be cutting $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, alleging that the school isn’t doing enough to address antisemitism on its campuses.