NEW YORK (AP) — Jewish group demonstrators fill the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday and condemn the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil’s immigrants. Pro-Palestinian activists He led the protest against Israel at Columbia University.
Reading “The Jews have stopped arming Israel,” the Jewish voice for peace protesters carrying banners and wearing red shirts recited, “Take Mahmoud home now!”
After warning protesters to leave the Fifth Avenue building, officers arrested 98 people on a variety of charges, including trespassing, obstructing and resisting arrest, officers said in a news briefing.
Halil, a 30-year-old US resident who married an American citizen and has not been charged with breaking the law, was arrested outside his New York City apartment on Saturday and faced deportation. He is being detained at an immigration center in Louisiana.
President Donald Trump vowed to deport Halil’s arrest “of many,” as he vowed to social media and deported students who said they were engaged in “pro-terrorists, anti-Semitism, anti-American activities.” The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the Trump Tower demonstration.
Among those who participated in Thursday’s protest was actor Debra Winger.
Winger accused the Trump administration of “not concerned with the security of Jews” and “adopting anti-Semitism.”
“I have just stood up for my rights and I am standing up for Mahmoud Khalil, who has been illegally accused and taken to a private place,” she told The Associated Press. “Does that sound like America to you?”
Protester Sophie Edelhart, who studies Yiddish at a Canadian school, said she attended the demonstration because she didn’t want her to “give the ground” to Trump and “fascism.” She said the building was an iconic target on the golden escalator Trump rode on before announcing the 2016 presidential election.
New York police officers arrested protesters from a group for Jewish voices who protested inside Trump Tower in New York on Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Trump Tower serves as the Trump organization’s headquarters and is where the president stays when he is in New York. Skyscrapers often attract protests against the name and support the same name, but internal protests are less common. The main entrance of the building is open to the public and opens to a multi-story atrium that connects visitors to shops and eateries such as a card grill.
Kazu Daughtry, deputy mayor of public safety and former New York Police Department aide, said no one was injured in the protest Thursday. However, he said the city would assess the situation and review the procedure as “this cannot happen again.”
Khalil’s supporters have protested in the city and elsewhere around the country, with Khalil’s arrest being an attack on freedom of speech. Hundreds held demonstrations outside a Manhattan courthouse on Wednesday During a brief hearing about his case.
Colombia was the focus of pro-Palestinians Protest movement It swept over US university campuses last year, resulting in more than 2,000 arrests.
On Thursday, Halil and seven students identified by pseudonyms filed a lawsuit attempting to block Columbia and Bernard University disciplinary records for students involved in campus protests with the Congressional committee.
The lawsuit against the Republican-led House Committee on Schools, Education, and its workers and its chairman, Rep. Tim Wahlberg, R-Mich, seeks a permanent injunction that prohibits schools from forcing records and universities to adhere to it.
The committee last month sent a letter requesting Columbia and Bernard provide record or billions of dollars in risk for federal funding. The plaintiffs argue that the committee has abused power in “an attempt to cool and restrain speeches and associations based on expressed perspectives,” and that the investigation “threatens to seriously infringe First Amendment rights.”
Messages seeking comment were left by a committee and a spokesman for Bernard University. Columbia declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.
Halil, whose wife is pregnant with her first child, completed her requirements for a Masters of Columbia degree in December. Born in Syria, he is the grandson of a Palestinian who was forced to leave his hometown, his lawyer said in a legal application.
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Contributors Michael Hill, Michael Hill of Albany, Michelle L. Price, Michael R. Sissac and Joseph B. Frederick.
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