[[link removed]]
COLUMBIA ACTIVIST IN DETENTION WAS PUBLIC FACE OF PROTEST AGAINST
ISRAEL
[[link removed]]
Ana Ley
March 11, 2025
The New York Times
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
_ Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, was
arrested in his Manhattan apartment and sent to Louisiana. His
detention sets up a fight over free speech. _
Mahmoud Khalil speaks at a pro-Palestinian student demonstration
after a sit-in at Barnard College last week., Marco Postigo Storel for
The New York Times
As protests over the Gaza conflict ignited rancor and division at
Columbia University last year, one student stood out for his role as a
negotiator representing activists in talks with the school officials
who were desperate to achieve peace on campus.
Mahmoud Khalil, 30, emerged as a public face of students opposed to
the war, leading demonstrations and granting interviews. He delivered
a message that his side viewed as measured and responsible but that
has been branded by some, including the Trump administration, as
antisemitic.
Mr. Khalil has been involved in demonstrations as recently as January,
when four masked demonstrators entered
[[link removed]]
a class on the history of Israel taught by an Israeli professor at
Columbia to accuse the school of “normalizing genocide.” Videos of
an unmasked Mr. Khalil at a related sit-in were soon circulated on
social media among critics of Columbia’s protest movement, with some
calling for him to be deported.
Over the weekend, Mr. Khalil was at the center of the news again. He
was arrested by federal immigration officials
[[link removed]]
in a drastic escalation of President Trump’s crackdown against what
he has called antisemitic campus activity. Mr. Khalil, a permanent
resident of the United States, had been living in Columbia’s student
housing when he was detained and then transferred to the Central
Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La.
Late Monday afternoon, the streets of Lower Manhattan were flooded
with about 3,000 protesters, according to the police, who had come to
demonstrate against Mr. Khalil’s detention.
“I support immigrants’ rights and freedoms and I support the
Palestinian fight for liberation,” said Alan Yaspan, who attended
the demonstration and said that he identifies as Jewish. “Mahmoud
Khalil was exercising rights everyone is entitled to.”
Mr. Khalil’s friends said they were stunned to hear of his arrest,
describing him as kind, expressive and gentle. He is someone who loves
to dance, to read Arab poetry and to play Arab music, said Maryam
Alwan, a friend and student who is a pro-Palestinian organizer on
campus. He hosted dinners at his home, with Middle Eastern fare
served.
“One of my friends last year was graduating and wasn’t able to get
a graduation robe,” Ms. Alwan said. “He just gave her his.”
On Monday, a federal judge in Manhattan ordered the U.S. government
not to remove Mr. Khalil from the country while the judge reviewed a
motion filed by Mr. Khalil’s lawyers challenging the legality of his
detention.
Federal immigration officials did not immediately reply to questions
about Mr. Khalil’s transfer, including why he was taken more than
1,000 miles from his home in New York City, where he had been
arrested.
Mr. Trump hailed the arrest
[[link removed]] in
a Truth Social posting on Monday and pledged that more student arrests
are forthcoming.
“ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical
Foreign Pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University,” the
president wrote. “This is the first arrest of many to come.”
Mr. Khalil’s arrest drew outrage from students and faculty at the
university. Joseph Howley, a classics professor at Columbia, described
him as brave, yet mild-mannered — a “consummate diplomat” who
worked to find middle ground between protesters and school
administrators.
Mr. Howley, who has known Mr. Khalil for about a year, having met him
after Mr. Khalil began speaking out in campus protests, said he was
frustrated by depictions of Mr. Khalil as a dangerous person.
“This is someone who seeks mediated resolutions through speech and
dialogue,” he said. “This is not someone who engages in violence,
or gets people riled up to do dangerous things. So it’s really
disturbing to see that kind of misrepresentation of him.”
But the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, in a thread on X
[[link removed]], called him
a “ringleader of the chaos” at Columbia and said he was involved
in two building takeovers at Columbia and Barnard.
Mr. Khalil was born and raised in Syria because his grandparents were
forcibly removed from their ancestral home in Tiberias, now part of
Israel, according to his lawyers’ legal filing
[[link removed]].
He is Palestinian and graduated in December from Columbia with a
master’s degree from the School of International and Public Affairs.
He is married to an American citizen who is expecting their first
child next month, his lawyer said.
In a statement released by his lawyer, Amy Greer, on Monday night, his
wife, who was not named, said, “I urge you to see Mahmoud through my
eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby. I need
your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my
hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this
world.”
According to the court filing from his lawyer, Mr. Khalil and his wife
were returning to their apartment on Columbia’s Manhattan campus
from a friend’s home about 8:30 p.m. Saturday when they were
approached by immigration officers dressed in plain clothes. All of
them entered the lobby of the apartment building, which is owned by
Columbia.
The agents who detained Mr. Khalil told him his student visa had been
revoked, even though he does not hold such a visa, according to the
legal filing. When Mr. Khalil’s wife showed the officers documents
demonstrating that he is a lawful permanent resident — not a student
visa holder — they arrested him and said that his green card had
also been revoked. The officers threatened to arrest Mr. Khalil’s
wife if she did not go up to her apartment and leave her husband
behind, the court document said. They then handcuffed him and took him
outside where vehicles were waiting.
Mr. Khalil married his wife on Nov. 16, 2023, and became a lawful
permanent resident in 2024.
Image
[A woman puts Post-it notes on an oversized photo featuring Mahmoud
Khalil.]
Students and faculty at Columbia called for Mr. Khalil’s
release.Credit...Bing Guan for The New York Times
As news spread about Mr. Khalil’s detention, a petition calling for
his release amassed more than
[[link removed]]
1.7 million signatures by Monday evening. A group of faculty members
from Columbia gathered Monday evening with Jewish community leaders
and immigrant rights advocates to denounce what they described as
“the unprecedented and unconstitutional arrest of a permanent
resident and Columbia graduate student in retaliation for his
political activity.”
Sophie Ellman-Golan, the communications director of Jews for Racial &
Economic Justice and a Barnard College graduate, described Mr.
Khalil’s arrest as “so deeply wrong and scary.”
“To target someone for their political speech in this way, to target
a permanent resident in this way, is an aberration,” Ms.
Ellman-Golan said.
Image
[Protesters carry signs, including one that says, “Free Mahmoud
Khalil immediately.”]
Protesters marched in Manhattan on Monday to press for Mr. Khalil’s
release.Credit...Bing Guan for The New York Times
Hamed Aleaziz, Anvee Bhutani and Luis Ferré-Sadurní contributed
reporting, and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
===
Ana Ley [[link removed]] is a Times reporter
covering New York City’s mass transit system and the millions of
passengers who use it. More about Ana Ley
[[link removed]]
* Mahmoud Khalil; Columbia University; Trump
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT
Submit via web
[[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]
Twitter [[link removed]]
Facebook [[link removed]]
[link removed]
To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]
