Mahmoud Khalil Arrested, Green Card Revoked, Detained, to be Deported for Leading Campus Protests

Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist, was arrested and his pregnant wife threatened by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at his university-owned apartment building.

Khalil graduated in December 2024 with a master’s degree from the university’s school of international affairs. During the protests, he was a negotiator on behalf of students in talks with university officials to end a spring 2024 tent encampment on campus.

In the hallways where agents confronted Khalil and his wife, Khalil phoned his attorney Amy Greer, who spoke by phone with an ICE agent. The agent said the State Department revoked Khalil’s student visa. Greer pointed out that Khalil had a green card, making him a permanent resident. The agent said they revoked that instead.

Khalil’s wife, a USA citizen who is eight months pregnant, offered to get his documentation from their apartment to show to the officers. They threatened to arrest her too.

Green card holders can be deported for a variety of criminal allegations but no criminal allegations had been made against Khalil.

Columbia University says law enforcement officers must produce a warrant before entering university property. The university would not say whether ICE presented a warrant before going into Khalil’s apartment building and would not comment on his arrest.

Khalil’s wife tried to visit him the next day at an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where ICE had said he was taken. He was not there. On Monday, two days after his arrest, he was found to be at a detention facility in Louisiana.

About the arrest, on social media Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

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