President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that federal immigration brokers arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and up to date Columbia College graduate who was taken this weekend — regardless of being a everlasting authorized resident of america — for serving to peacefully lead antiwar protests on campus final 12 months.
Regardless of not having a warrant, plainclothes brokers kidnapped Khalil Saturday night time as he returned to his university-owned condo together with his spouse, a U.S. citizen who’s eight months pregnant. Brokers claimed they have been revoking Syrian-born Khalil’s inexperienced card and likewise threatened to detain his spouse, in accordance with a habeas corpus petition his lawyer Amy Greer filed on his behalf.
Greer says that the arrest, which was confirmed by the Division of Homeland Safety, violates Khalil’s First Modification and due course of rights. On Monday night, a district decide dominated towards deporting him from the U.S. pending additional authorized motion in his case.
“The remarks by government officials, including the President, on social media only confirm the purpose – and illegality – of Mahmoud’s detention,” Greer stated in a Monday night assertion. “He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment. While tomorrow or thereafter the government may cite the law or process, that toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so. The government’s objective is as transparent as it is unlawful, and our role as Mahmoud’s lawyers is to ensure it does not prevail.”
Trump introduced the arrest himself on Monday afternoon, with the president labeling the Palestinian man a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” with out offering any proof to help that declare. The arrest was first reported by Zeteo.
“This is the first arrest of many to come. 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,” Trump posted on Reality Social, once more claiming with out proof that antiwar activists on school campuses are “paid agitators” and never college students.
Khalil, who acquired his grasp’s diploma from Columbia’s College of Worldwide and Public Affairs, was a outstanding determine in final spring’s protests on school campuses nationwide. College students and college of all faiths nonviolently referred to as on the U.S. to cease supporting Israel’s lethal army offensive in Gaza and for his or her universities to divest from firms that work with the Israeli army and authorities.
Columbia College, particularly, got here underneath scrutiny for its aggressive response that included permitting New York police to destroy solidarity encampments and arrest protesters. Khalil was a lead negotiator within the college’s encampment and simply final week advised The Related Press that he was amongst these underneath investigation by a brand new Columbia workplace that has disciplined dozens of pro-Palestinian pupil activists.
“There have been reports of ICE around campus. Columbia has and will continue to follow the law,” the college stated in a Sunday assertion. “Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings.”
Yuki Iwamura by way of Related Press
Three ICE brokers additionally visited a second overseas pupil at Columbia over the weekend and tried to enter her university-owned condo with out a warrant, in accordance with a graduate pupil union representing the unidentified lady. The Pupil Staff of Columbia stated the brokers have been “rightfully turned away at the door,” in accordance with the AP.
Columbia College didn’t say whether or not it had prior data of Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers arresting Khalil with out a warrant. However the college introduced its Morningside campus is basically locking down starting Monday and may have extra public security guards on the gates and across the perimeter, in accordance with an electronic mail obtained by Zeteo.
“It’s not a criminalized activity to speak out against genocide. In fact, it’s antiracist, it’s for justice and it’s for the wellbeing of everyone across the world, including this country,” Layan Fuleihan, training director for the Individuals’s Discussion board, advised HuffPost at a peaceable New York Metropolis protest for Khalil’s launch. “I would say this is something we’re not intimidated by, we’re going to be fighting for Mahmoud’s release and for anyone who is targeted in this outrageous witch hunt coming from the U.S. administration.”
Immigration consultants say DHS can begin deportation proceedings towards inexperienced card holders for alleged legal exercise, however the authorized foundation for detaining a authorized everlasting resident with out legal prices is shaky.
Whereas DHS accused Khalil of participating in “activities aligned to Hamas,” the company gave no proof of him offering materials help to the militant group.
Greer stated she was initially advised that Khalil was transferred to an ICE detention middle in New Jersey. Upon visiting the power, his spouse was advised he was not there. In accordance with the ICE detainee tracker, Khalil has been transferred to the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana.
Mary Altaffer by way of Related Press
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin didn’t reply to HuffPost to say why brokers didn’t inform Khalil’s spouse of his location, nor why brokers ignored Khalil’s constitutional rights by taking him, a authorized everlasting resident of the U.S., with out a warrant.
Columbia and the federal authorities quickly confronted intense backlash over Khalil’s arrest, with college, advocacy teams, attorneys and college students all demanding ICE launch him and finish Trump’s ongoing free speech crackdown disguised as combating antisemitism.
“My committed Jewish faculty colleagues and I have warned that the false characterization of Columbia as a hotbed of antisemitism would be used as an alibi for what’s actually at stake, for the Republican establishment and now the Trump administration,” Marianne Hirsch, a professor emerita at Columbia, stated on Monday. “Strict control of speech, protest and higher education at large.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim American advocacy group, stated it will be part of different civil rights organizations in serving to combat Khalil’s detention, which is the primary publicly recognized deportation effort underneath Trump’s ongoing crackdown on free speech that he’s portrayed as combating antisemitism.
“It is utterly despicable that they are carrying out this authoritarian lurch under the guise of fighting for Jewish safety. Let’s be perfectly clear: not only does destroying higher education and abducting students for political speech not keep Jews safe, it actively endangers us,” stated Eva Borgwardt, spokesperson for progressive Jewish American group IfNotNow, on Monday.
“If we do not all strongly oppose this dystopian crackdown on freedom of expression, directed by a government with many neo-Nazi ties and members, any of Trump’s political opponents could be its next victims,” she continued. “Advocates for reproductive justice, climate action, trans rights, immigrant rights and other progressive causes.”
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Matt Shuham contributed to reporting.
