Protesters plan to take care of the Federal Plaza in New York City on Monday to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian and graduated activist of the Columbia University arrested by federal immigration agents.
Khalil, who helped organize the pro-Palestinian protests of the school, was dragged from his university apartment on Saturday night by immigration and customs application agents after they told him that his student visa was being revoked, said his lawyer in a statement to NBC News. Lawyer Amy Greer added that ICE was informed that Khalil is a permanent resident with a green card, but still “stopped him anyway.”
Associated Press reported that the arrest seems to be the result of the impulse of President Donald Trump to deport international students who protested against the war in Gaza.
The People forum, which is organizing the demonstration, demanded that Khalil be released immediately.
“Hands our students! Make it on our campus!” The group published in X.
The Network of Action Organization without profit launched a petition that said that more than 900,000 cards had been sent asking for Khalil’s launch.
Greer said his office presented a petition challenging the validity of his arrest and that they do not know where he is stopped. Initially it was believed that the agents took Khalil to an installation in Elizabeth, New Jersey, but they told his wife that he was not there when she tried to visit. His wife is a American citizen and has eight months pregnant.
The lawyer added that he had received reports that he could be in Louisiana. The ICE website lists that Khalil can be in an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana.
“We will be strongly chasing Mahmoud’s rights in court, and we will continue our efforts to correct this terrible and inexcusable, and calculated, committed against him,” he said.
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said the arrest was a “blatantly unconstitutional act.”
“The United States is supposed to be a country of laws, but this law for the challenges of the DHS of that concept,” Awawdeh said in a statement. “The DHS must immediately release Khalil, and our local elected officials must intervene in this illegal and politically motivated detention of a New York.”
The Union of Civil Freedoms in New York said that Khalil’s arrest was an “extreme attack on his rights of the first amendment.”
“Retire to a student from his home, challenge his state of immigration and stop him only depending on the political point of view will cool the discourse and defense of students throughout the campus,” reads a statement. “Political discourse should never be a basis for punishment or lead to deportation.”
A spokesman for the National Security Department said that Khalil was arrested in coordination with ICE and the State Department “in support of the executive orders of President Trump that prohibit anti -Semitism” and because “he directed activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said in a position on Sunday that the administration will revoke the visas and green cards “of the supporters of Hamas in the United States so that they can be deported.”
Columbia said Sunday in a statement that the police must have a court order to enter the areas of the non -public university, including campus buildings.
“Columbia undertakes to fulfill all legal obligations and support our student body and the community of the campus,” said the university.
