Claims loophole could see millions lose their free speech rights in Trump immigration rampage
A resident of the US has been detained by immigration officials in a steep escalation of Trump’s America-first policies.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian permanent resident of the United States, was arrested on Saturday at his home in Columbia University’s postgrad housing precinct in a shocking escalation of Trump’s immigrant roundup policies.
Mr Khalil, 30, has lived in the United States since 2022, when he first entered on a Student Visa to study a Master’s in Public Administration at New York’s prestigious Columbia University.
Over the course of Mr Khalil’s arrest, which took place on Saturday, plainclothes ICE agents threatened to detain his pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla, 28 – an American citizen – and were reportedly confused as to what they were arresting him for.
Initially, officers told Kahlil’s lawyer Amy Greer they were revoking his student visa on orders of the Department of Homeland Security – but Khalil isn’t living in the United States on a student visa – he’s a Green Card holder.
ICE agents reportedly said they would “revoke that too” after being corrected by Greer as she spoke to them over the phone.
Information given to Greer about Khalil’s whereabouts in the aftermath of the arrest proved false – upon entering the prison where he was apparently located, his wife was informed that he was not there.
Since then, it has been confirmed that he is being held in a detention centre in Louisiana.
After Hamas launched its devastating October 7 attacks, Mr Khalil watched as Gaza – his homeland – was subjected to a massive land invasion and carpet-bombing campaign by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
In response to the campaign, which has gone on to take the lives of at least 63,000 Palestinians, Khalil became one of the key orchestrators of the Columbia University protests that would go on to spark mass demonstrations around the globe against the war in Gaza.
US President Donald Trump has suggested that Khalil was engaged in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said “no-one has the right to a Green Card.”
“When you apply for a student visa, or any visa to the United States, we have the right to deny you for virtually any reason,” Rubio said during a press conference on Thursday.
“I think being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down and being complicit in what are clearly crimes of vandalisation, complicit in shutting down learning institutions … if you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would never have let you in,” the Secretary of State said.
Mr Khalil, who previously worked for the British Government in Syria, has never expressed solidarity with Hamas on any public record. In response to questions from CNN during student protests, he said there was “no place for anti-Semitism” in American universities.
“The liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other,” he said.
The Syrian-born, self-described “double refugee” spent his childhood surrounded by conflict before he fled to Lebanon as an 18-year-old after the commencement of the Syrian Civil War.
As a young adult, Mr Khalil spent his time working for a Syrian-American educational non-profit helping other young Syrians rebuild their lives in Lebanon while simultaneously studying a degree in Computer Science.
In an update to the public on Monday evening, Greer said Khalil was “healthy” and that he was “undaunted by his predicament”.
“The government’s objective is as transparent as it is unlawful and our role as Mahmoud’s lawyers is to ensure it does not prevail,” she said.
Greer said Khalil was “chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment.”
Under US law, legal permanent residents – also known as Green Card holders – are afforded the constitutional right to free speech.
Despite this, green card holders may have this right struck down based on their “political activity,” in accordance with a Supreme Court decision made almost 70 years ago in response to perceived communist activity in immigrant communities – then referred to in documents as “illegal aliens”.
On Wednesday, a federal judge blocked Mr Khalil’s deportation for an as-of-yet undefined period.
Mahmoud’s wife, Ms Abdalla, has released a statement urging people to “see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby”.
“He is the most genuine person who cares so much for other people. He is the most kind, genuine soul,” she said.
“I think it would be very devastating fo rme and for him to meet his first child behind a screen. I’ve always been so excited to have my firsst baby with the person I love... I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world. Please release Mahmoud now.”