In a stark escalation in the Trump administration's campaign against Palestine activism, on Saturday night, ICE agents raided the home of Mahmoud Khalil and detained the activist who had been among the leaders of Gaza protests at Columbia University.
On Saturday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the Gaza protests on Columbia University’s campus, at his apartment in New York City.
Khalil, who is Palestinian, is a permanent U.S. resident, but according to his attorney, Amy Greer, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents executed a State Department order to revoke his student visa and green card.
Khalil was a recent graduate of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and had been a lead negotiator for student activists during the Gaza solidarity encampment in the spring of 2024.
According to a statement by the group Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), at 8:30 pm two plainclothes DHS agents forced themselves into the home of Khalil and his pregnant wife, refusing to identify themselves.
One agent eventually showed Khalil a warrant on his phone, which prompted his wife to find his green card to present to the officers.
“When she returned, advising them of Khalil’s legal status and presenting them with Khalil’s green card, one agent was visibly confused and said on the phone, ‘He has a green card.’,” says the WAWOG statement. “However, after a moment, the DHS agents stated that the State Department had ‘revoked that too.’ Khalil’s wife then phoned his attorney, who spoke with the agents in an attempt to intervene. When Khalil’s attorney requested that a copy of the warrant be emailed to her, the agent hung up the call.”
Khalil’s exact current whereabouts are unknown, with his attorney saying she is unsure if he is being held in an ICE detention facility in New York or New Jersey.
Responding to a press inquiry from Drop Site News, DHS said reporters would “need to reach out to the White House” for answers. (more...)
ICE arrests Palestinian activist for involvement in Columbia protests
Columbia allowed this to happen. Columbia allowed ICE to abduct a Palestinian member of our community after an incessant vitriolic doxxing campaign started by our own campus zionists. Mahmoud’s wife is due in one month and they took him right in front of her. This is unbearable. https://t.co/ru9oGOlsm4
— maryam 𖦹 free kashmir (@bluepashminas) March 9, 2025
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