ICE arrests Palestinian advocate with green card

Pro-Palestinian protest negotiator Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University

(Image credit: Selcuk Acar / Anadolu via Getty Images)

What happened

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a Palestinian activist and recent Columbia University graduate student, Mahmoud Khalil, at his New York apartment Saturday night, his lawyer said Sunday. The ICE agents said they were revoking Khalil's student visa, his lawyer Amy Greer said, and when told Khalil was a legal permanent resident with a green card, "the agent said they revoked that too."

Who said what

The arrest was the "first publicly known deportation effort" under President Donald Trump's "promised crackdown on students who joined protests against the war in Gaza" last spring, The Associated Press said. Khalil was a negotiator between pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia and school administrators.

Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the arrest was "in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting antisemitism," alleging that Khalil "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization." Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X last night, above a news article on Khalil's arrest, "We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."

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The State Department "can rescind visas" in certain circumstances, The Washington Post said, but "it was unclear what legal authority the Trump administration would use to revoke green cards," which are "one step below" U.S. citizenship. Khalil's detention is a "frightening escalation of Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestine speech and an aggressive abuse of immigration law," New York Civil Liberties Union director Donna Lieberman said. It "reeks of McCarthyism."

What next?

Greer said she and Khalil's wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, do not know where he is being held or the charges against him. "We will vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud's rights in court," she said.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.