US Judge Blocks Pro-Hamas Activist at Columbia University From Deportation Following ICE Arrest

Dion J. Pierre

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Illustrative: Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of media at Columbia University encampment in New York City, US, June 1, 2024. Photo: Jeenah Moon via Reuters Connect

A US federal judge in Manhattan has halted the deportation of a male alumnus of Columbia University who was a leading anti-Israel agitator on campus and an architect of the Hamilton Hall building takeover, which took place during the closing weeks of the 2023-2024 academic year.

“To preserve the court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the court orders otherwise,” Judge Jesse Furman of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in a notice on Monday, ordering a hearing for Wednesday.

The ruling came after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Saturday night arrested Mahmoud Khalil, who recently participated in another building takeover at Barnard College, on Columbia’s campus at his university-owned apartment, his attorney, Amy Greer, told several news outlets. The agents reportedly explained that they were acting on a US State Department order to revoke his student visa and permanent resident status.

Greer filed a motion that her client be returned to New York City while the case plays out. According to ICE, Khalil is currently being held at the Lasalle Detention facility in Louisiana.

Khalil is a Palestinian from Syria. He completed post-graduate studies at Columbia University in December and is awaiting the formal granting of his diploma.

In a statement, the US Department of Homeland Security said ICE agents arrested Khalil “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism.”

The department continued, “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting US national security.”

ICE’s arrest of the student follows an executive order by the Trump administration that calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.” A major provision of the order calls for the deportation of extremist “alien” student activists, whose support for terrorist organizations, intellectual and material, such as Hamas contributed to fostering antisemitism, violence, and property destruction on college campuses. Trump has also said that foreign students who hold demonstrations in support of Hamas “will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.”

So far, Columbia University has been the administration’s main focus, as the school continues to be convulsed by pro-Hamas activists.

As The Algemeiner has previously reported, Columbia remains one of the most hostile campuses for Jews employed by or enrolled in an institution of higher education. Since Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the university has produced several indelible examples of campus antisemitism, including a student who proclaimed that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself, brutal gang-assaults on Jewish students, and administrative officials who, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, participated in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes that described Jews as privileged and grafting.

Amid these incidents, the university has struggled to contain the anti-Zionist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which in late January committed an act of infrastructural sabotage by flooding the toilets of the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) with concrete. Numerous reports indicate the attack may have been the premeditated result of planning sessions which took place many months ago at an event held by Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) — a literary society, according to the Washington Free Beacon. During the event, the Free Beacon reported, ADP distributed literature dedicated to “aspiring revolutionaries” who wish to commit seditious acts. Additionally, a presentation was given in which complete instructions for the exact kind of attack which struck Columbia were shared with students.

In recent weeks, CUAD occupied two buildings at Barnard College, disregarding threats that doing so would lead to swift and severe disciplinary sanctions, including possible expulsion.

Following the incidents, the Trump administration canceled $400 million in funding to Columbia as punishment for its failing to address the issue, executing an ultimatum delivered by US Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

Some groups are unhappy with the administration’s policies on pro-Hamas advocacy, however, and following Khalil’s arrest, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) denounced his detainment as unconstitutional.

“The Trump administration’s detention of Mahmoud Khalil — a green card holder studying in this country legally — is targeted, retaliatory, an and extreme attack his First Amendment rights,” NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman said on Sunday in a public statement. “Ripping a student from their home, challenging their immigration status, and detaining them solely based on political viewpoint will chill student speech and advocacy across campus. Political speech should never be a basis of punishment, or lead to deportation.”

On Monday, however, US President Donald Trump defended Khalil’s arrest and said it will be the first of many.

“This is the first of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, antisemitism, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”

Trump went on to argue that the presence of those who support terrorism on US soil undermines American national security interests, adding that he expects colleges and universities to comply with his executive order.

On Friday, Columbia University, which has been accused of refusing to impose disciplinary sanctions on pro-Hamas activists, announced that is has suspended four of its students who were identified as co-conspirators in the latest storming and occupation of a Barnard College building, which took place on Wednesday at the Milstein Center.

“These students have been suspended and restricted from campus as we swiftly work through the discipline process,” the university said in a statement. “We are a campus governed by our rules, policies, and the law. Any violations of these will not be tolerated and will have consequences.”

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