Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, was arrested in his Manhattan apartment and sent to Louisiana. His detention sets up a fight over free speech.
Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, was arrested in his Manhattan apartment and sent to Louisiana. His detention sets up a fight over free speech.
Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, was arrested in his Manhattan apartment and sent to Louisiana. His detention sets up a fight over free speech.
As protests over the Gaza conflict ignited rancor and division at Columbia University last year, one student stood out for his role as a negotiator representing activists in talks with the school officials who were desperate to achieve peace on campus.
Mahmoud Khalil, 30, emerged as a public face of students opposed to the war, leading demonstrations and granting interviews. He delivered a message that his side viewed as measured and responsible but that has been branded by some, including the Trump administration, as antisemitic.
Mr. Khalil has been involved in demonstrations as recently as January, whenfour masked demonstrators entered a class on the history of Israel taught by an Israeli professor at Columbia to accuse the school of “normalizing genocide.” Videos of an unmasked Mr. Khalil at a related sit-in were soon circulated on social media among critics of Columbia’s protest movement, with some calling for him to be deported.
Over the weekend, Mr. Khalil was at the center of the news again. He was arrested by federal immigration officials in a drastic escalation of President Trump’s crackdown against what he has called antisemitic campus activity. Mr. Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, had been living in Columbia’s student housing when he was detained and then transferred to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La.
Late Monday afternoon, the streets of Lower Manhattan were flooded with about 3,000 protesters, according to the police, who had come to demonstrate against Mr. Khalil’s detention.
“I support immigrants’ rights and freedoms and I support the Palestinian fight for liberation,” said Alan Yaskin, who attended the demonstration and said that he identifies as Jewish. “Mahmoud Khalil was exercising rights everyone is entitled to.”