Disclaimer: Khalil’s trial is still ongoing and the story is still developing. Information in this article is as of March 25, 2025.
Trump’s recent demands of Columbia University, as well as the arrest of recent graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, could show a new precedent for the federal government’s interventions in higher education and individual immigration status. For the past year, Columbia University has seemed to be in the spotlight for both the eye of the federal government and the eye of pro-Palestinian student protesters. This month, the Trump administration announced a $400 million funding cut of federal grants, out of Columbia’s $5 billion in federal commitments, “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) posted on X in response to the funding cuts, saying, “I issued this warning to Columbia’s president when I was there to face the protest mob months ago. Columbia has failed to protect its students from terrorist sympathizers. Today, President Trump is making them pay for it.”
For the return of the federal funding, the Trump administration issued a letter to Dr. Katrina Armstrong, interim president, listing actions the University should take. They include finishing disciplinary proceedings for all students involved in last year’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment and building occupation, enforcing a campus mask ban, and adopting a definition of antisemitism that includes anti-Zionism, among other demands.
The weekend of March 22, Columbia announced that they would comply with several other Trump demands, such as hiring thirty-six “special officers who will have the ability to remove individuals from campus and/or arrest them,” enforcing a partial mask ban, and placing under special curricular and faculty supervision by a senior vice provost the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies department as well as the Center for Palestine Studies, according to the Columbia Spectator. Instead of dismantling the University Judiciary Board as Trump’s demands listed, the Board will also be under extensive review and supervision by other administrators, and students can no longer serve on the panel.
Since then, Columbia has also expelled, suspended, or revoked degrees from over twenty students involved in last year’s protests. All suspensions were multi-year, and many expulsions or arrests hit students who were weeks away from graduation, including the revocation of degrees for already graduated students. This includes the expulsion of UAW President Grant Miner, who represented Columbia’s graduate student workers, the day before union negotiations. Though Miner’s expulsion was due to his participation in the campus protests, the union has reacted unfavorably towards the University amidst the Trump administration’s funding cuts for PhD programs and graduate research and work.
One student, Mahmoud Khalil, was arrested and taken from his home the night of March 8 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to his involvement in negotiations and planning for the encampment last spring. Agents involved in his arrest initially informed him he was being removed due to the State Department revoking his student visa, though Khalil is a legal permanent resident, and, according to the Columbia Spectator, married to an American citizen. The precedent for the ability to revoke a legal resident’s green card without a formal charge is unclear, and it has remained unclear whether or not any warrant was presented to the University or to Khalil.
Khalil, who graduated in December from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, is Palestinian, born in a refugee camp in Syria to a family who was displaced from Tiberias in 1948. His family then fled Syria for Lebanon at the onset of the Syrian civil war, and he went on to attend university in Beirut. He came to Columbia in 2022 on a student visa– during which time he reportedly avoided high-risk protests– and eventually became a permanent resident of the U.S. The night before his arrest, Khalil reached out to the University to ask for protection as high-profile figures, both in government and on social media, called for his arrest and deportation, to which he received no response.
His wife, who prefers to be unnamed, and who is currently eight months pregnant with their first child, in a statement read by state attorney Shezza Abboushi Dallal, said that “[her] husband was kidnapped from [their], home, and it’s shameful that the United States government continues to hold him because he stood for the rights and lives of his people.”
Shai Davidai, an Israeli professor at Columbia and a primary figure of pro-Israel advocacy there, had called on social media before Khalil’s arrest for his expulsion and arrest. Despite many protestors accusing him of being a primary motivator for the arrest and possible deportation, Davidai, also a permanent resident, upheld that Khalil was arrested due to violations of the green card contract, such as “[supporting] U.S. terrorist organizations, [taking] over university buildings, and [calling] for the genocide of anyone.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio also posted on X to say, in relation to Khalil’s residency status, that a green card is “a privilege, not a right.”
Khalil has since been moved to an ICE detention center in Louisiana, which his defense team has alleged was a move to isolate him from support networks, as they are struggling to get into contact with him. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) have both joined Khalil’s legal team and are working to guarantee Khalil due process, as they believe “the federal government does not have the authority to deport individuals or revoke their residency on the basis of viewpoint alone.” On Monday, March 17, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman transferred the case to New Jersey, not Louisiana, temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation, and extended the prohibition again on Wednesday to consider whether or not the arrest was unconstitutional.
The arrest has sparked weeks of international protests on university campuses, as well as at government and ICE buildings, to oppose his arrest and demand his release. The protests are both a continuation of pro-Palestinian activism as well as anti-ICE activism, demanding ICE be barred from entering campuses, and pressuring Columbia to restrict ICE activity on their campus. One high-profile protest, organized by Jewish Voices for Peace, was a sit-in at Trump Tower in Manhattan, advocating for Khalil’s release. According to the NYPD, 98 people were arrested at that protest alone.
President Trump, on the social media platform Truth Social, described the arrest as “the first arrest of many to come.” ICE has since arrested a second Palestinian student at Columbia, Leqaa Kordia, who, according to DHS, overstayed her student visa that expired in 2022.
A March 11 letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem from fourteen U.S. representatives alleged that the arrest was an instance of anti-Palestinian racism and characterized it as “an attempt to criminalize political protest and… a direct assault on the freedom of speech of everyone in this country.” The letter was signed by representatives such as Palestinian Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), though others, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have called for Khalil’s release individually.
In a letter written from the ICE detention center in Louisiana, Mahmoud Khalil stated that his arrest, to him, showed “similarities to Israel’s use of administrative detention– imprisonment without trial or charge– to strip Palestinians of their rights.” He also stated that he believed his arrest was “a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation… Students have long been at the forefront of change– leading the charge against the Vietnam War, standing on the frontlines of the civil rights movement, and driving the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who steer us toward truth and justice.”
“The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent,” he said. “Visa-holders, green-card carriers, and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs. In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all. Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”
