As protests over the conflict of Gaza sparked Rancor and Division last year at Columbia University, a student stood out for his role as a negotiator representing activists in talks with school officials who were desperate to succeed.
Mahmoud Khalil, 30, appeared as a public figure of the students who opposed the war, leading demonstrations and interviews. He gave a message that his side regarded as measured and responsible, but this has come back from some, including the Trump administration, as anti -Semitic.
Mr. Khalil has been involved in demonstrations just in January, when Four protesters who have suffered a mask entered a class in Israeli history taught by an Israeli professor in Columbia to blame the “Genocide Nomination” school. The videos of an excluded Mr Khalil on a related sit-in were soon released on social media between Columbia’s protest critics, with some asking him to deport.
During the weekend, Mr Khalil was back at the center of the news. He was arrested by federal immigration officials in a drastic escalation of President Trump’s repression against what he has called anti -Semitic campus activity. Mr Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, lived at Columbia’s student housing when he was held and then transferred to the Central Louisiana Ice Center in Jena, LA.
Late Monday afternoon, Lower Manhattan streets were flooded with about 3,000 protesters, according to police, who had come to prove against Mr Khalil’s detention.
“I support the rights and freedoms of immigrants and support the Palestinian struggle for liberation,” said Alan Yaskin, who watched the demonstration and said he recognized as Jews. “Mahmoud Khalil exerts rights that everyone has the right.”
Mr Khalil’s friends said they were stunned to hear his arrest, describing him as polite, expressive and polite. He is someone who loves dancing, reading Arabic poetry and playing Arabic music, said Maryam Alwan, a friend and student who is in favor of the Palestinian organizer on campus. He hosts dinners at his home, with the fare of the Middle East.
“One of my friends last year graduated and couldn’t get a graduation robe,” Ms Alwan said. “He gave him exactly.”
On Monday, a Federal Judge in Manhattan ordered the US government not to remove Mr Khalil from the country, while the judge examined a proposal submitted by Mr Khalil’s lawyers by questioning the legality of his detention.
Federal immigration officials did not immediately answer questions about Mr Khalil’s transfer, including why he took over 1,000 miles from his home in New York, where he was arrested.
President Trump welcomed arrest in a truth about social publication on Monday and pledged more student arrests.
“Ice proudly arrested and held Mahmoud Khalil, a radical foreign pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University,” the president wrote. “This is the first arrest of many coming.”
Mr Khalil’s arrest drew anger by students and teachers at the University. Joseph Howley, a classic professor in Columbia, described him as a brave but mild-mannered-a “flawless diplomat” who worked to find medium ground between protesters and school managers.
Mr Howley, who met Mr Khalil for about a year, having met him after Mr Khalil began talking on campus protests, said he was frustrated by Mr Khalil’s depictions as a dangerous person.
“This is someone who seeks to mediate resolutions through speech and dialogue,” he said. “Not someone involved in violence, or gets people to do dangerous things. So it’s really annoying to see this kind of misleading statement.”
But Columbia’s Jewish Association of Graduates, in a thread in X, named him “Ringleader of Chaos” in Columbia and said he was involved in two acquisitions of buildings in Columbia and Barnard.
Mr Khalil was born and raised in Syria because his grandparents were violently removed from their ancestral home in Tiberias, now part of Israel, according to the legal deposition of his lawyers. He is a Palestinian and graduated in December from Columbia with a master’s degree from the School of International and Public Affairs. He is married to an American citizen waiting for his first child next month, his lawyer said.
In a statement published by his lawyer, Amy Greer, on Monday night, his wife, who was not named, said: “I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a beloved husband and the future father in our baby. I need your help to bring Mahmoud to home, so it’s here next to me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child to this world. ”
According to the court’s deposition by his lawyer, Mr. Khalil and his wife returned to their apartment on the Campus of Manhattan, Columbia from a friend’s house at around 8:30 pm On Saturday, when they were approached by immigration officers dressed in simple clothes. All of them entered the lobby of the apartment building, which belongs to Columbia.
The agents who kept Mr Khalil told him that his student visa had been revoked, although he did not have such a view, according to the legal deposition. When Mr Khalil’s wife showed the documents of officers who prove that he was a legal resident – not a student visa holder – they were arrested and said his green card had also been revoked. The officers threatened to arrest Mr Khalil’s wife if she did not go to her apartment and left her husband behind, the judicial document said. They then kicked him out and took him out where the vehicles were waiting.
Mr Khalil married his wife on November 16, 2023 and became a legal resident in 2024.
As the news spread to Mr Khalil’s detention, a report calling for his release garnered more than 1.7 million signatures by Monday night. A team of teaching members from Columbia gathered Monday night with the leaders of the Jewish community and supporters of immigrant rights to denounce what they characterized as “the unprecedented and unconstitutional arrest of a permanent student and a resident of Columbia.”
Sophie Ellman-Golan, Hebrew Communications Director for racial and financial justice and graduate of Barnard College, described Mr Khalil’s arrest as “so deeply wrong and scary”.
“To aim for someone for their political speech in this way, to target a permanent resident in this way, it is a diversion,” said Ellman-Golan.
Hamed aleaziz; Torque and Luis Ferré-Sadurní contributed a report and Kirsten noyes He contributed research.
