The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent (ICE) has arrested a Palestinian graduate student who played a prominent role in last year’s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University in New York, the Student Workers Union said on Sunday.
A student worker from the Colombian Union said in a statement that student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested on Saturday at his university residence.
Halil’s wife is a US citizen and he has a green card for permanent residence, the union said. He remained in custody on Sunday. Halil’s wife refused to comment through one of Halil’s fellow students.
Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer, told The Associated Press that he spoke to one of the ICE agents on the phone during his arrest. The lawyer informed him that Halil was in the country as a permanent resident with a green card, and the lawyer said the agent had revoked it.
Greer said authorities refused to tell Halil’s wife, eight months pregnant, whether she was accused of committing a crime. Halil was then transferred to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
“We couldn’t get any more details on why he was in custody,” Greer told the Associated Press. “This is a clear escalation. The administration is chasing that threat.”
The arrest appeared to be one of the first known actions under President Donald Trump’s pledge to send international students to send foreign students who joined in protests against Israeli war in Gaza, which swept university campuses last year. His administration alleges that participants confiscated their right to remain in the country by supporting Hamas, which has been designated by the United States as a “terrorist” organization.
The move is described as an attack on First Amendment freedom.
Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian origin, set up a tent camp on Colombian lawn last year and was one of the main negotiators for school administrators who stolen the tent camp on Colombian lawns in April before police were allowed to enter the campus. Halil was not the group that occupied the building, but the mediator between Colombian Provosts and protesters.
Protesting students called for the end of the war that sold Colombia from companies with Israeli ties, a ceasefire, and the killing of nearly 50,000 Palestinians and transformed the enclave into tile rubs after non-stop artillery fire. The United States provided most of its ammunition for the war.
Colombia said last year it would consider promoting some of its student demands through its investment committee.
Rights groups accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, with 2.3 million people living there. Despite the ceasefire set in place since January 19, Israel has blocked the entry of aid to Gaza since March 1, eliciting criticism from rights groups and aid agencies.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas was protested by pro-Palestinians for months that hit US university campuses in a military attack in Gaza in an attack on Israel and subsequent Israeli forces.
At least 1,100 people were killed in the Hamas attack and about 240 were taken prisoner. Most of the prisoners have been released as part of a ceasefire agreement. The new round of armistice meetings will resume on Monday in Qatar’s capital Doha.
The government targeted
A Columbia spokesman said the schools were prohibited by law from sharing information about individual students.
The Department of Domestic Security and the State Department oversee the country’s visa system, but did not answer questions from the press. It was not immediately clear why the ice agents arrested Halil. The ice is under the US Department of Homeland Security.
Khalil said in an interview with Reuters news agency hours before his arrest on Saturday over Trump’s criticism of Colombia, he was concerned that he was being targeted by the government for talking to the media.
On Friday, the Trump administration said it had cancelled government contracts and grants worth around $400 million to Columbia University. The government said the cuts and student deportation efforts were due to “anti-Semitic” harassment at and near the Manhattan campus in Columbia.
“What can Colombia do now to appease Congress and the government?” Before his arrest, Khalil said that Colombia called police twice to arrest protesters, disciplining many pro-Palestinian students and staff, and halting some.
“They basically silenced people who support Palestine on campus, but this wasn’t enough. Obviously, Trump is using protesters as scapegoats for his wider agenda. [of] Fighting and attacking the higher education and the Ivy League education system. ”
In response to the cuts in grants announced Friday, Colombian interim president Katrina Armstrong said the school is working to combat anti-Semitism and “working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns.”
The protesting students denied the accusations of anti-Semitism.
“This is just the beginning.”
Mariam Alwan, a Colombian Palestinian-American senior who is protesting alongside Halil, said the Trump administration is dehumanizing Palestinians.
“I am terrified of my dear friend Mahmoud, a legal resident, and I am afraid that this is just the beginning,” she said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that international students support Hamas, who are facing “terrorist” organizations, as the United States faces visa revocation and deportation.
On Thursday, Columbia issued a revised protocol on how students and school staff should treat ice agents trying to enter private school property.
The school said ICE agents without a judicial arrest warrant could be allowed to enter private property in “urgent situations” they did not designate.
“By allowing ice on campus, Columbia has surrendered to Trump’s administration’s attacks on universities across the country, protecting its finances at the expense of international students,” a Columbia student worker said in a statement.
Halil lives in a university apartment near Columbia’s main gate campus.
Source link
