Washington — President Trump warned Monday that this weekend’s arrest of prominent Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil by federal immigration authorities is the first “of many to come” amid his administration’s crackdown on students and alleged “agitators” protesting Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. The same day, a federal judge blocked Khalil’s deportation and scheduled a court hearing after Khalil’s attorney filed a petition challenging the arrest.
The president wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that his administration “will not tolerate” what he said is “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American” activity on college campuses across the country, and claimed the protests are being waged by “paid agitators” rather than students. As a student at Columbia University last spring, Khalil helped lead demonstrations protesting Israel and the war in Gaza.
“We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again,” Mr. Trump wrote. “If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply.”
The president said the Saturday night arrest of Khalil is “the first arrest of many to come.”
Last year, Khalil and other Columbia students set up an encampment on the school’s main lawn to protest the ongoing war in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which Israel launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack. More than 1,200 people in southern Israel were killed in the massacre and another 251 were taken hostage. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the fighting since, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Khalil’s lawyer, Amy Greer, said in a statement that he was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Saturday night. Greer said the ICE agents said Khalil’s student visa had been revoked, but Greer noted that he is a U.S. green card holder.
She has since filed a petition on Khalil’s behalf challenging his arrest and detention. A federal judge on Monday blocked Khalil’s deportation and scheduled a Wednesday conference to discuss the petition.
“If counsel do not believe a conference is required, and that briefing is appropriate, counsel should propose a briefing schedule (expedited or otherwise) in the joint letter,” District Judge Jesse Furman wrote. “To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise.”
Greer said in her statement that immigration authorities also threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, who is a U.S. citizen and eight months pregnant.
“We will vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud’s rights in court, and will continue our efforts to right this terrible and inexcusable — and calculated — wrong committed against him,” Greer said. “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. The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Khalil’s arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.” The agency alleged that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” but did not provide any details.
“The remarks by government officials, including the President, on social media only confirm the purpose — and illegality — of Mahmoud’s detention. He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment,” Greer said in a statement Monday evening. “While tomorrow or thereafter the government may cite the law or process, that toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so. The government’s objective is as transparent as it is unlawful, and our role as Mahmoud’s lawyers is to ensure it does not prevail.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the Trump administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
An online ICE database states that Khalil is being held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, and lists his birthplace as Syria.
Greer confirmed Khalil’s location and said local attorneys would be visiting him Monday and Tuesday. She called his transfer from New York to Louisiana a “blatantly improper but familiar tactic designed to frustrate the New York federal court’s jurisdiction, and isolate Mahmoud far from his lawyers, his home, and his local community of support.”
Since returning to the White House for his second term, Mr. Trump and his administration have taken numerous steps in response to last year’s protests on college campuses and antisemitic incidents.
Among those was an executive order signed by the president in late January that pledged to revoke student visas and deport “Hamas sympathizers.” The order also directed the Justice Department to “quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”
The Department of Education has also announced investigations into five universities, including Columbia, where there have been reported incidents of antisemitic harassment. On Friday, the Trump administration moved to cancel $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia.
Mr. Trump has separately threatened to strip federal funding for colleges and universities that allow “illegal protests.”
“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came,” he wrote on social media last week. “American students will be permanently expelled or, depending [on] the crime, arrested.”
The American Civil Liberties Union condemned Khalil’s arrest, calling it “unprecedented, illegal and un-American,” and urged the Trump administration to return him to New York and release him from custody.
“The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes,” Ben Wizner, director of its Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a statement. “To be clear: The First Amendment protects everyone in the U.S. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate.”
