By Fern Sidman

A wave of outrage swept across New York City on Monday following the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a pro-Hamas graduate student at Columbia University, who was taken into federal custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Saturday night. As was reported in The New York Daily News on Monday, Khalil’s abrupt arrest sparked an immediate and impassioned response, with hundreds of demonstrators flooding the streets of Manhattan in protest, accusing the federal government of politically motivated repression.

His attorney, Amy Greer, told The New York Daily News that Khalil was immediately transferred to an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana.

In a swift and vocal response to Khalil’s detention, approximately 1,000 protesters gathered at Foley Square on Monday before marching to Union Square in a rancorous display of dissent. The protest, according to The New York Daily News, featured chants, speeches, and emotionally charged testimonies from activists and supporters of Khalil. One demonstrator described the arrest as nothing short of “kidnapping,” noting that Khalil was removed from his home in the presence of his pregnant wife.

Jay Saper, a 34-year-old protester quoted by The New York Daily News, denounced the arrest as emblematic of an increasingly authoritarian drift in U.S. policy. “This is a shift by our government toward fascism,” Saper declared. “New Yorkers will have to take to the street. This is not about addressing anti-Semitism, this is about political oppression and anti-Palestinian racism.” Saper added that the arrest was designed to “institute fear.”

The move marks the first high-profile arrest under President Trump’s recently enacted executive orders targeting individuals with alleged ties to terrorist organizations who are participating in anti-Israel demonstrations across U.S. campuses.

As reported by The New York Post, Khalil — a Syrian-born Palestinian and a recent graduate of Columbia University’s prestigious School of International and Public Affairs — was apprehended on March 9^th at his Columbia University residence by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in coordination with the State Department. The arrest, federal officials said, was carried out under the authority of Trump’s executive order prohibiting anti-Semitism and addressing national security concerns.

According to a White House source cited by The New York Post, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was “presented with intelligence” indicating that Khalil posed a national security risk. The precise nature of the intelligence remains classified, but the source emphasized that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been collecting intelligence on individuals allegedly “supporting Hamas,” rather than on general protestors.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed this in a statement to The New York Post, asserting that Khalil had led protest activities aligned with Hamas — an organization designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist group. “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” McLaughlin stated. “ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security.”

Khalil, who completed his graduate degree in December, had emerged as a central figure in campus unrest over the past year, according to the report in The New York Post. He reportedly served as the lead negotiator for Columbia United Apartheid Divest — a controversial activist group that has expressed sympathies toward organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and called for radical political upheaval, including the “end of Western civilization.” Federal officials have tied his organizing efforts and sustained involvement in protests, even after graduation, to what they now characterize as subversive conduct.

President Trump himself took to Truth Social shortly after the arrest to applaud the enforcement action and issue a stern warning to student activists nationwide. “Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University,” Trump wrote. “This is the first arrest of many to come.”

Trump’s post emphasized that federal authorities were actively monitoring other universities for similar activity. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” he warned, as was noted in The NY Post report.

The announcement has sent shockwaves through university circles and civil liberties advocates alike, with critics raising alarm about potential overreach and politically motivated immigration enforcement. Still, the administration has doubled down on its stance, linking the arrest directly to a broader national security agenda.

Although the federal government appears to be preparing Khalil for removal proceedings, a legal challenge has momentarily paused his deportation. A Manhattan federal judge issued an emergency stay after Khalil’s legal team filed a petition contesting the legality of his detention, according to the information in The New York Post report.

One unnamed source quoted by The New York Post remarked on the logistical challenges of deporting Khalil, noting: “They’re staging this guy for removal, but I don’t know where they’re gonna send him. We don’t have charter flights to send him to Syria.”

Despite having officially completed his studies in December, Khalil’s organizing did not end with his graduation. He continued to be an active presence in campus protests — including recent building takeovers at Barnard College, a Columbia-affiliated institution. As indicated in The New York Post report, his actions have kept him in the spotlight of both media scrutiny and federal surveillance.

Tensions reached a boiling point following a high-profile disruption at Barnard College on March 5, when nearly 200 masked anti-Israel protesters seized the Milstein Library. Among them was Mahmoud Khalil — clearly visible in video footage posted on social media — using a bullhorn and engaging in direct negotiations with school officials, The New York Post report revealed. During the takeover, pamphlets glorifying the brutal October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks were widely distributed throughout the building. Those attacks, widely condemned by world leaders, resulted in over 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages taken by the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

The spark for this most recent campus unrest was the expulsion of two students accused of storming a class on modern Israel and disseminating graphic anti-Semitic flyers. Among the incendiary materials: one showed a burning Israeli flag, and another depicted a military boot crushing a Star of David.

Khalil’s role in organizing and amplifying these anti-Israel protests has been closely scrutinized by federal authorities. ICE agents informed Khalil at the time of his arrest that his green card had been revoked — an action the administration claims falls within the authority of the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who was reportedly presented with intelligence designating Khalil a national security threat.

However, legal experts cited by The New York Post have raised serious constitutional questions about this course of action. Renowned left-wing civil rights attorney Ron Kuby (who in partnership with the late William Kunstler defended the murderer of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane) told the publication that lawful permanent residents possess the same First Amendment protections as U.S. citizens. He explained that revoking a green card typically requires a judicial process involving a formal case presented before an immigration judge — usually based on a conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude or fraud in the immigration process, as was noted in The NY Post report.  “There is a process that has to be followed,” Kuby emphasized. “You go before an immigration judge and defend yourself.”

Khalil, through his legal team, filed a petition in federal court on Monday, claiming that his arrest by ICE violated his constitutional rights. His attorney, Amy Greer, issued a statement condemning the arrest as “the US government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza.” Greer declined to respond to The New York Post directly.

In the backdrop of Khalil’s case is a sweeping campaign by the Trump administration to clamp down on anti-Semitic incidents across university campuses — a campaign that has taken on a high-stakes, high-profile character. The President’s Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced last month it would launch visits to 10 major universities that have seen surges in anti-Semitic activity since October 2023. Columbia University topped the list, alongside institutions such as Harvard, NYU, UCLA, and Berkeley.

Task Force chief Leo Terrell highlighted the administration’s zero-tolerance stance in a statement to The New York Post: “The Task Force’s mandate is to bring the full force of the federal government to bear in our effort to eradicate Anti-Semitism, particularly in schools. These visits are just one of many steps this Administration is taking to deliver on that commitment.”

President Trump, meanwhile, continues to emphasize the Khalil arrest as a precedent-setting move. In a Truth Social post, he declared, “ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come.” Trump further warned that students at other universities engaged in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity” would also be subject to federal scrutiny and removal.

Adding further gravity to the administration’s campaign, The New York Post revealed that President Trump recently ordered the withdrawal of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts from Columbia University, citing alleged violations of anti-discrimination laws. The message to other institutions is clear: failure to act on anti-Semitism could have steep financial consequences.

Still, some federal insiders acknowledged the logistical challenges ahead. “They’re staging this guy for removal, but I don’t know where they’re gonna send him. We don’t have charter flights to send him to Syria,” one source told The New York Post, pointing to the complexity of enforcing deportation orders for individuals from conflict zones.

As legal proceedings move forward and the political fallout continues to mount, the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil has become a flashpoint in a national battle over civil liberties, anti-Semitism, campus protest culture, and immigration enforcement. Khalil’s case may only be the beginning of a sweeping crackdown that could fundamentally reshape the relationship between American universities and the federal government.