NEW YORK — Federal immigration authorities arrested a
Palestinian graduate student who played a prominent role in last spring's
anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, according to his attorney.
Mahmoud Khalil was inside his university-owned residence
Saturday night near Columbia’s Manhattan campus when several Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agents entered the building and took him into custody, his
attorney, Amy Greer.
Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents
during the arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to
revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the
United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they
were revoking that too, according to the lawyer.
The arrest appeared to be among the first known actions
under President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport international students who
joined the protests against Israel's war in Gaza that swept college campuses
last spring. His administration has claimed participants forfeited their rights
to remain in the country by supporting Hamas, a terror organization.
Khalil served as a negotiator for students as they bargained
with university officials over an end to the tent encampment erected on campus,
a role that made him one of the few student activists willing to share his name
and identity.
The authorities declined to tell Khalil’s wife, who is eight
months pregnant, whether he was accused of committing a crime, Greer said.
Khalil has since been transferred to an immigration detention facility in
Elizabeth, New Jersey.
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