NEW YORK – Making good on a campaign trail promise this weekend, the Trump administration moved to officially begin deporting activists for first amendment protected activity.
Mahmoud Khalil and his eight-month pregnant wife were returning to their home in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, when they were suddenly ambushed by plainclothes officers who claimed to be from the Department of Homeland Security. They moved to take him into custody, saying that his student visa to attend Columbia University had been revoked by the State Department.
Khalil, a green card holder, communicated to agents that he was a permanent resident as his wife moved to obtain his documentation from their apartment. When she returned with his papers, the agents seemed confused, communicating to a likely superior over their phones.
They then told Khalil and his wife that his green card was also being revoked by the State Department. Khalil’s wife called their lawyer, Amy Greer, who asked agents to email her the warrant they claimed they had on their phone, but in response they simply hung up on her. They then took Khalil into custody, despite him not being charged or convicted of any crime.
Since then, his lawyer and family have been unable to locate him in the federal detention system, though a People’s World search through ICE’s detention registry located him this morning at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana, some 1,300 miles away from his apartment near Columbia University.
One of many participants
Khalil was one of the many students participating in the Columbia student encampments, launched in support of ending the genocidal Israeli war in Gaza. Locating the responsibility not just in official U.S. foreign policy, but also in the institutional support of well-endowed private universities like Columbia, students and workers alike demanded that Columbia drop its investments in the Israeli state, as well as respect the principles of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement by closing its sister campus in Tel Aviv and ceasing its relationships with Israeli defense concerns.
Though the crackdown on students was brutal and is yet still ongoing, the Trump administration last week cancelled $400 million in federal grants and contracts with Columbia – roughly the cost of operating the university for one school year – arguing that it had not gone far enough to suppress student speech about the genocide in Gaza. Indeed, though the university called in the NYPD last year to clear out the encampment, flying occupations, silent sit-ins, and impromptu demonstrations have continued.
During the 2024 campaign, and as far back as October 2023, Donald Trump made several promises to deport pro-Palestinian protesters if elected. Since taking office, the DHS and State Department have announced their intention to utilize artificial intelligence to scour the social media of international students and other immigrants to discern if there are pro-Palestine sympathies and then move to deport.
Called “Catch and Revoke”, the program has already resulted in the stripping of student visas from students attempting to reenter the United States after their winter break. The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee claims at least a dozen cases thus far.
Yet the Trump Administration does not need to resort to sophisticated AI tools to draw up lists of undesirables. Right-wing Jewish organizations like Betar have already submitted lists of names to the Trump White House. Among these, Mahmoud Khalil’s was included.
Columbia University professor Shai Davidai also demanded that Secretary of State Marco Rubio take “strong action” to deport Khalil as recently as last week.
The Anti-Defamation League, ostensibly a civil rights organization, applauded Donald Trump for disappearing a permanent resident for first amendment protected activity. “We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism… we also hope that this action serves as a deterrent to others.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement that “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported” while DOGE spokeswoman Katie Miller called the seizure of Mahmoud “Law enforcement enforcing the law.”
Her husband, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, said that “Admission is a privilege — an extraordinary privilege. Not a right.” and that “Those who sympathize with terrorism are unwelcome on our shores.”
People’s World reached out to the offices of Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Adriano Espaillat (NY-13)’s offices for comment, asking what steps they planned to take to protect their non-citizen constituents exercising their first amendment rights, but did not hear back before this story went to print.
The New York Civil Liberties Union said that “the unlawful detention of Mr. Khalil reeks of McCarthyism. It’s clear that the Trump administration is selectively punishing Mr. Khalil for expressing views that aren’t MAGA-approved.”
Meanwhile, a petition circulated by a newly created group called Deportation Defense has nearly one million signatures less than 48 hours after Khalil’s detention, and activists are planning to rally in front of Jacob Javitz Federal Center in lower Manhattan today at 4pm. NYC Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander denounced the move, saying that Khalil’s forced disappearance “will not make Jews — or any of us — safer.”
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