Pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with New York City police officers in a demonstration in support of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student detained for his role in pro-Gaza campus protests last year.
Khalil, 30, was detained by ICE officers in front of his heavily pregnant wife at the weekend before being taken to a facility in Louisiana, despite being a legal permanent resident who is married to an American citizen.
The White House said on Tuesday that it had the power to revoke his green card, although he has not been charged with any crime. The Department of Homeland Security accused him of carrying out “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
His detention has raised concerns about the Trump administration’s attitude towards freedom of speech, even among some right-wing commentators. The president has warned that Khalil’s arrest will be the “first of many.”
Protests swept universities across the United States last year amid Israel’s onslaught against Gaza in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks on Israel that left more than 1,000 dead and about 250 people kidnapped. More than 100 students were arrested when police launched an operation to clear the campus in April last year.
Last week, the Trump administration announced it was pulling $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia, saying it had failed to stop antisemitism on campus. As a result, the National Institutes of Health said it was cutting more than $250 million in funding, which included more than 400 grants.
About a dozen protesters were arrested during a march in support of Khalil in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday. New York City Police Department officers were seen handcuffing and leading away a number of demonstrators accused of blocking a street near City Hall.
There were also protests at University of California, Berkeley and in Newark, New Jersey.
On Tuesday Khalil’s wife, who has not been named publicly, called for her husband to be released and said the previous week had been a “nightmare.”
She said: “My husband, Mahmoud Khalil, is my rock. He is my home and he is my happy place. I am currently 8 months pregnant, and I could not imagine a better father for my child. We’ve been excitedly preparing to welcome our baby, and now Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all … The last week has been a nightmare …
“I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration.”
She added: “Everyone who knows Mahmoud knows him to be level-headed even in the most stressful situations. And even in this terrifying situation, he was calm.
“Within minutes, they had handcuffed Mahmoud, took him out into the street and forced him into an unmarked car. Watching this play out in front of me was traumatizing: It felt like a scene from a movie I never signed up to watch …
“U.S. immigration ripped my soul from me when they handcuffed my husband and forced him into an unmarked vehicle. Instead of putting together our nursery and washing baby clothes in anticipation of our first child, I am left sitting in our apartment, wondering when Mahmoud will get a chance to call me from a detention center. I demand the U.S. government release him, reinstate his Green Card, and bring him home.”
Lawyers were expected to challenge Khalil’s planned deportation at a hearing on Wednesday.
