The national protests are planned this weekend after Mahmoud Khalil, former student activist of the University of Columbia, was arrested by the immigration authorities, feeding the tensions between the Trump administration and the students’ movements on the immigration policy.
Khalil, 30, was arrested by immigration agents and customs compliance in the middle of the night last weekend, which caused outrage in recent days. Khalil, Algerian citizen of Palestine descent, helped lead pro-palestinian demonstrations at the University of Columbia last spring.
The protests that request their release will be carried out in cities such as New York City, Boston, Phoenix, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Miami and Indianapolis on Saturdays and Sundays.
Several dozen protesters gathered on Times Square on Saturday afternoon, with traditional Palestinian scarves, known as Kuffiyehs, and waving Palestinian flags.
“Lanza Mahmoud right now!” The protesters shouted.
Grant Miner, the former president of a union that represents thousands of student workers in Columbia who were fired and expelled this week, went to the crowd. He described Mahmoud’s arrest as “a fear campaign.”
“We must stop together to tell Trump and his billionaire friends that we are not going to defend this intimidation and the setback of civil rights in this country,” he said.
To justify Khalil’s arrest, The Trump administration cited a dark foreign policy clause that allows the Federal Government to deport foreign citizens who consider national security threats. The National Security Department alleges that Khalil “directed activities aligned with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
On Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration to expel Khalil, a permanent legal resident, from the country while challenging its deportation.
Khalil filed an amended petition and a complaint in the Federal District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, stating that it was the objective of “retaliation arrest and attempt to eliminate a student protest due to its constitutionally protected speech.” Khalil finished his classes in Columbia in December 2024 and was expected to graduate in spring, according to the presentation.
Immigration authorities have the 30 -year -old in Louisiana and their lawyers have requested that it be returned to New York City. His wife, American, has eight months pregnant.
“I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father of our baby,” he said in a statement through Khalil’s defense lawyer on Monday. “I need his help to take Mahmoud home, so he is here by my side, taking my hand in the births while we welcome our first child to this world.”
Trump administration points to campus protesters
Khalil’s arrest marks the first attempt to comply with the campaign promise of President Donald Trump to deport international students who protested in support of the Palestinians on the campus throughout the country last spring.
On Tuesday, a doctoral student from India whom DHS accused of supporting Hamas self -destroyed Canada. And on Friday, another Palestinian student who participated in Columbia’s protests last year, identified by DHS as Leqaa Kordia, was arrested for allegedly exaggerating his student visa.
“It is a privilege to receive a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” said DHS secretary Kristi Noem, in a statement on Friday. “When lawyers for violence and terrorism, that privilege must be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”
The DHS agents also raided two Columbia bedrooms on Thursday night, but did not arrest, according to a university statement. When commenting on the raids on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Blanche said the Department of Justice was “observing whether the management of previous incidents of Columbia violated civil rights laws and included terrorism crimes.”
Civil rights groups and protesters have denounced the federal government’s actions in Columbia as an infraction in freedom of expression. The protesters organized demonstrations this week both in the university and inside the Trump tower, located in Manhattan.
International Columbia students have expressed fear, and several tell NBC News on Friday that they increasingly hesitate to criticize the Trump administration due to the fears of repercussions.
The University School of Journalism said that their staff and students are “witnessing and experiencing an alarming cold.”
“One does not have to agree with the political opinions of any particular individual to understand that these threats cut the core of what it means to live in a pluralistic democracy,” said the School of Journalism in a statement issued on Friday. “The use of deportation to suppress foreign critics runs parallel to an aggressive campaign to use the laws of defamation in new, even extravagantly, to silence or intimidate the independent press.”
Columbia University in the focus of evident light
Arrests are part of the broader effort of the Trump administration to “eradicate” what he calls “anti -Semitic harassment in schools and university campuses.” And perhaps no other university campus in the country caught more attention for its pro-palestinian manifestations last year that Columbia.
For weeks the past spring, the student activists organized daily protests, occupied a university building and established a camp of several dozen tents on university grass, inspiring similar configurations in university campuses throughout the country. Promoted by the indignation by the Israel War in Gaza, the students pressed so that their universities were deflated from companies linked to the Israeli government. Activism caused intense debates on campus, with some students expressing concerns about anti -Semitism.
In the week before the arrests, the Trump administration highlighted Columbia, announcing that it would cancel approximately $ 400 million in federal subsidies to the university. The administration cited “the continuous inaction of the school against persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
The measure marked an unprecedented intervention by the federal government in the affairs of a private university.
Columbia responded by promising to work with the federal government to restore its financing.
“We take the legal obligations of Columbia seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and we are committed to fighting anti -Semitism and guaranteeing the safety and well -being of our students, teachers and staff,” said a University spokesman for NBC News last week.
On Thursday, the University said that it suspended or expelled some of the students who participated and temporarily revoked the diplomas of some graduates.
“I am not surprised that the university is choosing to throw its students and workers under the bus for money,” Miner told NBC News. “We know exactly how much it costs now, buy the moral of Columbia.”
