New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind case, Mahmoud Khalil, a 29-year-old Palestinian student-activist, is at the center of a legal and political battle on free speech, political activism, and immigration in the United States.
Khalil, a former Master’s student at Columbia University and legal permanent US resident, was arrested by the US immigration authorities last week for organising pro-Palestine protests at his alma mater in 2024.
Serving as the lead negotiator for pro-Palestinian student protesters at the university, Khalil became a key figure in the nationwide movement demanding an end to the war on Gaza and calling for US universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Now, he is facing deportation under the Trump administration’s hardline stance on political protests criticising Israel.
Reportedly, Khalil repeatedly urged the university for protection before being picked up from the Columbia University residence in Manhattan over the weekend.
The Trump administration’s arrest of Khalil came on a rarely used provision of immigration law that gives broad authority over deportation, CNN reported. Using immigration law for deportation over political views is rare. It is typically used for deportation in cases of direct support for terrorist organisations.
Khalil’s arrest came based on a 1952 Cold War-era Immigration and Naturalization Act that allows the US government to deport individuals if their presence or activities are deemed a threat to foreign policy. This provision enables the Trump administration to push for Khalil’s deportation without criminal charges. However, the case will still go to court, where the government must prove he poses such a threat.
At a briefing Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was authorised to revoke visas or green cards if someone’s activities posed serious foreign policy risks. Rubio said: “No one has a right to a student visa or green card.”
Although Khalil is a legal permanent resident, the US government has claimed to have revoked his green card and plans to deport him. US President Donald Trump has said that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement “proudly apprehended” Khalil and that the arrest would be the “first of many to come”. He also described Khalil as “a radical foreign pro-Hamas student” on Truth Social.
The comments are in keeping with Trump’s policies. In his first week as president, Trump vowed to deport students participating in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, which has spread across campuses, starting the previous year.
Just days before Khalil’s arrest, Trump eliminated $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University. Trump has also threatened to cut federal funding to schools, colleges, and universities, allowing what he referred to as “illegal protests”.
On Tuesday, Karoline Leavitt accused Khalil of organising protests that not only disrupted college classes but also harassed Jewish-American students, making them feel unsafe on campus. She claimed he distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, including flyers featuring the Hamas logo, CNN reported.
The US Homeland Security officials have reportedly said that Khalil’s involvement in the protests might pose a national security risk, pointing to his leadership role in activities aligned with Hamas, a group designated as a terrorist organisation by the US government.
Soon after his arrest, Rubio stated that the Trump administration “will revoke the visas and/or green cards of individuals in the US who support Hamas, enabling their deportation.”
However, Khalil has not been charged with any crimes yet, and no clear evidence links him to Hamas.
With a federal court temporarily blocking Khalil’s deportation, his case is now under judicial review, and 19 March is the next hearing date. Khalil remains in custody at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, Reuters has reported.
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Mahmoud Khalil’s activism
Born in Syria and raised in a Palestinian refugee family, Khalil’s activism is deeply rooted in his personal history. His grandparents fled Tiberias, now in Israel, during the 1948 Nakba, the mass displacement of Palestinians during the establishment of the state of Israel.
Khalil received his Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in December 2024 and his green card last year. His wife, a US citizen, is eight months into her pregnancy.
While green card holders in the US have protections under the First Amendment, they are not as immune from deportation as US citizens. Green card holders face deportation for reasons such as committing crimes, engaging in fraud, or being deemed a national security threat. But no one, so far, has been deported for political speech, including activism in the US, making the Khalil case a rare one.
The protests Khalil helped lead at Columbia were part of a nationwide student activist movement. The movement is controversial and faces allegations of anti-Semitism. However, many human rights organisations argue that the US government is using such accusations to suppress legitimate criticism of Israeli policies.
Since Khalil’s arrest, the movement has grown to include calls for his release, with over 2.7 million people signing a petition supporting him.
Khalil has consistently rejected any anti-Semitism in his activism. “As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-in-hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other,” he told CNN in 2024.
Deportation, detention & activism in the US
The legal challenges surrounding Khalil’s deportation highlight the broader issue of the handling of political activism within the context of the US immigration laws.
Green card holders have more rights than visa holders but do not have the same protections as US citizens. While they can live and work permanently in the US, certain legal violations or government decisions can trigger deportation proceedings.
Foreign-born students in the US—usually on F-1 visas—have fewer protections and are required to follow strict immigration regulations, which include restrictions on political activities, a New Yorker article noted.
The focus of the Trump administration on combating anti-Semitism on campuses through executive orders aimed at targeting criticism of Israel has further complicated the situation. The administration has also established a task force to investigate and combat anti-Semitic speech.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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Khalil and other such apologists for Islamist terror have no place in civilized societies. The US and other Western nations must crack down on these defenders of Islamic terrorism. Democracy guarantees freedom of speech. But it doesn’t mean that people can abuse such fundamental rights to promote terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism.
He is not a us Citizen, he is a permanent resident. His wife is a citizen.