On Monday, Donald Trump remarked that the apprehension of a notable Palestinian activist who played a key role in Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year is just the “first arrest of many to come.”
“We are aware that numerous students at Columbia and various universities nationwide have participated in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, and anti-American actions, and the Trump Administration will not stand for it,” the US president stated in a post on Truth Social.
He further stated: “Many individuals are not actual students; they are paid agitators. We will identify, apprehend, and deport these sympathizers of terrorism from our nation—never to return. If you endorse terrorism, including the massacre of innocent men, women, and children, your presence contradicts our national and foreign policy interests, and you are unwelcome here. We expect every institution of higher education in America to comply.”
Trump’s comments were made following the weekend arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident with a green card who recently graduated from Columbia. He was reportedly taken into custody by federal immigration authorities based on a state department order to revoke his green card.
In his statement on Monday, Trump asserted that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Khalil into custody following his executive order, alleging, without evidence, that similar activists on college campuses are actually paid agitators instead of students.
Khalil, who was raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, acted as a lead negotiator for the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University last year, facilitating discussions between the demonstrators and university officials.
According to his lawyer, Khalil was arrested on Saturday night while he was in his university-owned apartment, located a few blocks from Columbia’s main campus in New York. Several ICE agents entered the building and apprehended him.
Initial reports indicated Khalil was being held at an immigration detention center in New Jersey, but his wife claimed she could not find him there.
By Monday morning, it seemed he was recorded as being in ICE custody at the La Salle detention facility in Louisiana.
Free speech organizations, advocates for the First Amendment, and several New York City officials expressed outrage at the unprecedented arrest and ongoing detention of Khalil, labeling it unconstitutional, “an egregious violation of the First Amendment,” and a “terrifying weaponization of immigration law.”
