U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a new crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters on American college campuses, vowing that the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a demonstration leader at Columbia University in New York, is just the beginning.
In a statement on his Truth Social platform, Trump stated, “We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”
Khalil, a Syrian national and graduate student at Columbia’s School of International Affairs, was arrested by U.S. immigration officials over the weekend. He was one of the prominent figures in the protest movement that erupted at Columbia and other campuses last year in opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza against the U.S.-designated terror group Hamas.
However, the protests died down and did not resume when the new school year opened last fall.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that Khalil’s arrest was taken “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State.”
U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman has ordered that Khalil not be deported for now and has set a court hearing for Wednesday. Khalil, who holds a permanent U.S. residency green card and is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, has not been charged with any criminal offenses.
In a social media post, 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 pro-Palestinian protests last year disrupted classes at some U.S. campuses following Hamas’ terror attack on southern Israel in October 2023, which resulted in the death of 1,200 people and the capture of about 250 hostages, with about two dozen still being held in Gaza by the terror group or its affiliates.
In response, Israel launched a counteroffensive in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of more than 48,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military has stated that the death toll includes 17,000 Hamas terrorists.
The campus demonstrations sparked accusations of anti-Semitism, with the protests turning violent at times as demonstrators occupied campus buildings and disrupted classes. The protests pitted students protesting Israel’s conduct against pro-Israel campaigners, many of whom were Jewish.
Khalil’s lawyer has stated that the agents who arrested him on Saturday at his university-owned home near Columbia said they were revoking his green card. He is currently being held in an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
Khalil’s lawyers have urged Judge Furman to order his return to New York. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil rights advocacy group, has also called for Khalil’s immediate release and is working with his lawyer.
In a statement, the organization said, “Khalil is a lawful permanent resident of our nation who has not been charged with or convicted of a single crime. The Department of Homeland Security’s decision to arrest him solely because of his peaceful anti-genocide activism represents a blatant attack on the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, immigration laws, and the very humanity of Palestinians.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also stated that the administration will be “revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” Khalil’s arrest is the first publicly known deportation effort linked to the Palestinian protests since the Trump administration took office in January.
During the protests last year, Khalil and other student leaders of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest student group denied claims of anti-Semitism, stating that they were part of a broader anti-war movement that included Jewish students and other groups.
However, the divestment group has also expressed support for leaders of both Hamas and Hezbollah, another Islamist organization primarily based in Lebanon that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group.
It is unclear when Khalil will have a hearing in an immigration court, which is typically the first step in the deportation process.
Khalil was one of the most visible activists in last year’s protests at Columbia, serving as a negotiator for students who erected a tent encampment on campus. Pro-Israel activists have recently called on the Trump administration
