Immigration agents arrest Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian 
activist Saturday who played a prominent role in Columbia University’s 
protests against Israel, a significant escalation in the Trump 
administration’s pledge to detain and deport student activists.

Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until this past December, 
was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered and took him into 
custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told The Associated Press.

Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the 
arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke 
Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the 
United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said 
they were revoking that instead, according to the lawyer.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia 
McLaughlin, confirmed Khalil’s arrest in a statement Sunday, describing 
it as being “in support of President Trump’s executive orders 
prohibiting anti-Semitism.”

https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-15014bcbb921f21a9f704d5acdcae7a8