Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia who was arrested by ICE in March 2025, speaking to media. (Screenshot)
(JTA) — Immigration officers arrested a recent Columbia University graduate over his role in pro-Palestinian activism, a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s offensive against students protesting Israel at the school.
The detention this weekend of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian who is in the country legally and holds a green card, has elicited sharp reactions from politicians and activists. Pro-Israel groups and figures largely praised the arrest as a signal that the White House is taking campus antisemitism and support for terrorism seriously. Progressive and pro-Palestinian groups, meanwhile, are decrying the arrest as a dangerous precedent and an assault on freedom of speech and assembly.
Khalil, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement issued Sunday night, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers earlier in the day. News reports said he was taken into custody at his apartment in a Columbia-owned building, and that his wife, who is eight months pregnant, was also threatened with arrest. His lawyer said in a statement that she did not know his whereabouts.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted that the U.S. government intends to deport Khalil.
“We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,” he wrote on Sunday. He did not specify what law, if any, Khalil is accused of violating.
The arrest is the highest-profile instance, so far, of the Trump administration following through on its vow to deport student activists whom it accuses of supporting terrorism — a pledge Trump made on the campaign trail and included in a January executive order.
Khalil, who recently graduated from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, is a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the vociferously anti-Israel group leading campus pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
He has acted as a spokesperson for the group, which has previously called for “armed resistance,” and was a leader of last year’s encampment protest. He has remained involved following his graduation, taking part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration last week at Barnard College, the women’s school affiliated with Columbia.
The DHS statement said Khalil’s arrest occurred “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” and accused Khalil of supporting terrorism.
“Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” the statement said. “ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security.”
Jewish groups were among the many voices to swiftly weigh in on Khalil’s arrest.
Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish group that spoke out in defense of the encampment movement, tweeted that President Donald Trump was playing on fears of antisemitism in order to pursue an anti-democratic agenda.
“The White House’s authoritarian actions are being falsely done in our name as Jews, by a President and politicians who actively use antisemitism and do not speak for Jews,” the group tweeted. “We’ve been afraid this day would come since campus protests began. Free speech and education are pillars of our democracy, and a healthy democracy is what keeps Jews safest.”
The Anti-Defamation League, an antisemitism watchdog that has criticized Columbia’s response to pro-Palestinian activism, praised the arrest while calling for immigration law to be followed.
“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism — and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions,” the group’s statement said. “Obviously, any deportation action or revocation of a Green Card or visa must be undertaken in alignment with required due process protections. We also hope that this action serves as a deterrent to others who might consider breaking the law on college campuses or anywhere.”
The statement immediately elicited criticism from progressive Jews who said the ADL was abandoning its values.
“BRB, checking the history books to find out whether ‘tyrant starts redefining peoples’ citizenship status’ usually ends well for the Jews,” tweeted Leah Goldberg, a co-founder of Indivisible, in an allusion to Hitler’s decision to strip citizenship from many Jewish Germans in the 1930s.
More than 700,000 people signed a petition opposing Khalil’s arrest in the hours after it took place. The Council on American-Islamic Relations called the arrest “a blatant attack on the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, immigration laws, and the very humanity of Palestinians.” Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a prominent progressive, tweeted, “Deporting legal residents solely for expressing their political opinions is a violation of free speech rights.”
Khalil’s arrest comes days after the Trump administration froze $400 million of grants to Columbia as a response to how it has handled campus antisemitism. And it comes weeks after Barnard expelled two students for disrupting an Israeli history class and handed out fliers showing a boot stomping on a Star of David.
The arrest comes shortly after reports that the Trump administration was using artificial intelligence to find and deport students who support Hamas, and that ICE had already revoked one activist’s visa. On Friday, an account on X dedicated to identifying anti-Israel and antisemitic activists at the school posted about Khalil and called for Rubio to take action against him.
“Mahmoud Khalil, the foreign student who is one of the leading agitators on campus, is still causing trouble,” read the post by an account called Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus at Columbia U. “He seems to be present at every encampment and every sit-in or building takeover.”
Other pro-Israel activists praised the arrest. Shai Davidai, an Israeli Columbia professor who has outspokenly opposed the school’s response to anti-Israel activism, tweeted, “To be clear: Mahmoud Khalil was detained because he broke the law and his green card conditions.”
Betar US, a militant right-wing pro-Israel group that has recommended names of people to deport to the Trump administration, praised the arrest and called for more like it.
“We commend @realDonaldTrump for grabbing jihadi Mohammad Khalil!” the group tweeted. “Many many more to go Mr President. We will keep bringing evidence and will continue to assist @ICEgov nationwide.”
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