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Mahmoud Khalil

New Orleans Rallies For Mahmoud Khalil Outside ICE Field Office

April 13, 2025 Fight Back! News. , , , , ,
New Orleans, LA – Around 60 people gathered outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in New Orleans to protest the illegal detention of Mahmoud Khalil. Attendees rallied around speakers and chanted as a judge – hours away in rural Jena, Louisiana – would decide if Khalil could be deported for his activism for Palestine. Speaking for the Palestinian Youth Movement, Majdi Jaber said, “This ICE office that we’re outside right now directs operations in all of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama. Every day for the last month, these people have chosen to do nothing about Mahmoud’s incarceration.”

Judge Says Trump Can Deport Mahmoud Khalil Over His Political Beliefs

April 12, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , ,
The Trump administration’s push to deport Palestine activist and former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil is based on an accusation of “antisemitism,” according to a source who saw the government’s filing. Facing a court deadline to hand over evidence justifying Khalil’s, the Department of Homeland Security submitted a two-page memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel noncitizens that have the potential to damage the foreign policy interests of the United States.

Mahmoud Khalil’s Immigration Status Will Be Determined Friday

April 9, 2025 Samuel Karlin, Left Voice. , , ,
Mahmoud Khalil’s immigration hearings began in Louisiana on April 8. Supporters who tried to observe the proceedings virtually were not allowed in. ABC News reported that during this hearing, Judge Jamee Comans determined that the Trump administration has 24 hours to provide evidence of allegations they’ve made to justify Khalil’s deportation. The administration has made bogus claims that Khalil poses a threat to national security. Once Khalil’s team has reviewed and responded to whatever information the Trump administration provides, Comans will decide at another hearing this Friday if Khalil can stay in the United States.

A Letter To Columbia

April 7, 2025 Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia Daily Spectator. , , , , , ,
To Columbia—an institution that laid the groundwork for my abduction—and to its student body, who must not abdicate their responsibility to resist repression, Since my abduction on March 8, the intimidation and kidnapping of international students who stand for Palestine has only accelerated. On March 9, Yunseo Chung had to file a lawsuit and eventually seek a court order barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining her for her protest activity. On March 11, Ranjani Srinivasan chose to cross the border to Canada upon the belief that this university was ready to hand her over to ICE.

Jewish Pro-Palestinian Protesters Chain Themselves To Gates

April 3, 2025 Joseph Zuloaga, Spencer Davis and Daksha Pillai, Columbia Spectator. , , , , ,
Four Jewish pro-Palestinian demonstrators chained themselves to the gate near St. Paul’s Chapel early Wednesday afternoon in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ’24, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 8. A new group of protesters tethered themselves to the Earl Hall gates later that afternoon. A Wednesday post from Columbia’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace cites a March 10 report from the Forward in which Ross Glick, former leader of Betar, a self-described “bold Zionist movement,” said he visited Washington, D.C. to meet with officials about Khalil.

Jewish Supporters Rally For Mahmoud Khalil

March 21, 2025 Rita Singer, Left Voice. , , ,
Hundreds of Jews mobilized with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in New York and Michigan, joining many thousands of non-Jews taking the streets across the country to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil. They want freedom for Palestine and ICE out of our campuses and communities. Jewish protesters in New York City packed the lobby of Trump Tower last Thursday, and staged a sit-in at Columbia University to demand the release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was seized from his home on Columbia campus by ICE and is now in custody in Louisiana.

The Chris Hedges Report: America’s Constitutional Crisis

March 20, 2025 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and detention in a Louisiana ICE facility is a harbinger for a new authoritarian era of the United States. Khalil’s arrest, the capitulation of Columbia University against dissent and protest by its own students and the Trump administration’s threat of stripping the university of $400 million in grants if it does not meet its requests is just one place where the tentacles of fascism tighten their grip. Katherine Franke, a former law school professor at Columbia, is on the front lines of this assault. Her support for student protests and her condemnation of the university for not addressing the harassment of pro-Palestinian students has earned what she called, “a termination dressed up in more palatable terms.”

Palestinian Political Prisoner Mahmoud Khalil Releases Statement

March 19, 2025 Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder with permanent residency, has released his first public statement since his arrest on March 8. He was taken into custody by plainclothes Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers in the lobby of his Columbia University apartment complex due to his alleged connection to Hamas. His statement, released Tuesday, was dictated by phone to family members from an ICE center in Louisiana. Khalil, who has not yet been charged with a crime, said he is a “political prisoner” and expressed concern with the political and social climate in the United States that led to his arrest.

Mahmoud Khalil And The Criminalization Of Anti-Zionism

March 16, 2025 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
“Since yesterday, I have been subjected to a vicious, coordinated, and dehumanizing doxxing campaign led by Columbia affiliates Shai Davidai and David Lederer who, among others, have labeled me a security threat and called for my deportation, he began. Their attacks have incited a wave of hate, including calls for my deportation and death threats. I have outlined the wider context below, yet Columbia has not provided any meaningful support or resources in response to this escalating threat, he added. I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home.

Jewish Americans And Allies Occupy Trump Tower

March 15, 2025 Julia Conley, Scheer Post. , , , ,
Nearly a year and a half after the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace began leading nationwide demonstrations against Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, hundreds of organizers and supporters of the group risked arrest Thursday as they assembled in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City, demanding the release of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil. “Three hundred Jews and friends in Trump Tower, because we know what happens when an autocratic regime starts taking away our rights and scapegoating and we will not be silent,” said Sonya Meyerson-Knox

Mahmoud Khalil Will Remain Detained In Louisiana

March 13, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
Mahmoud Khalil will continue to be detained at an ICE facility in Louisiana following a brief hearing in New York City on Wednesday morning. In response to a habeas corpus petition and a request to have him transferred back to New York, where he was arrested, federal judge Jesse Furman called for more briefs from Khalil’s lawyers and the U.S. government. Trump attorneys informed the court that they will submit a motion to transfer or dismiss Khalil’s habeas corpus petition, as they view New York as “an improper venue” for the case and do not believe it has any jurisdiction.

Take Action: The Arrest Of Mahmoud Khalil Is A Warning

March 11, 2025 William Shoki, Africa Is A Country. , , , , , , ,
The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and recent graduate of Columbia University, may seem like an isolated case—just another student detained under the increasingly draconian surveillance of the US security state. Some may wonder why anyone should care about the fate of a single foreign graduate student at an Ivy League university. But Khalil’s story is not an anomaly; rather, it is a warning. His detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in what appears to be an attempt to silence pro-Palestinian activism, is part of a much broader global trend: the rise of authoritarianism in its neofascist form and the increasing weaponization of state power against dissenters.