U.S. federal authorities have arrested one of the leaders of pro-Palestinian student demonstrations at Columbia University in New York, as Donald Trump has vowed to expel foreign student “agitators.”

Mahmoud Khalil, a key figure in protests on Columbia’s campus since the spring of 2024, was arrested Sunday “in support of President Trump’s decrees banning anti-Semitism and in coordination with the State Department,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on X. The agency accused Khalil of being “linked to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” without providing further details.

“We will revoke the visa or green card of all Hamas supporters in the United States so they can be deported,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X.

Read more

Trump’s executive order against pro-Palestine protestors already affecting campus life

Permanent U.S. resident

“Agents of the Department of Homeland Security have arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian who recently graduated from Columbia,” the university’s Student Worker Union said in a statement. The union noted that Khalil holds a U.S. permanent residency permit, also known as a green card.

Columbia University declined to comment on the arrest. “Columbia will continue to comply with the law (…) law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public parts of the university,” it said in a statement.

The campus became a flashpoint for protests against Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and the Biden administration’s support for Israel. On April 30, 2024, at the request of Columbia’s then-president — who has since resigned — New York police forcibly removed several dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators from the campus.

Throughout the presidential campaign, Trump has strongly condemned such demonstrations and the universities where they occurred. His administration took action Friday by announcing the “immediate cancellation” of $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, accusing it of failing to act “against anti-Semitic acts.”