Consider this as a positive development. A past student at Columbia University and advocate of an anti-Semitic nature on campus has been taken into custody by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is now in danger of losing not just his student visa but also his green card – with deportation imminent.
The individual in question, a Palestinian supporter who organized disruptive protests against Israel at Columbia University and Barnard College, was apprehended by ICE officials at his residence on the campus, as confirmed by his legal representative.
Mahmoud Khalil, formerly a graduate student who acquired his undergraduate education in Beirut and graduated from the prestigious Columbia University in December, is also facing the possibility of having his visa annulled and his green card invalidated as a result of President Trump’s strict measures against disturbances at educational institutions.
He was inside his university-owned apartment a few blocks from campus Saturday night when ICE agents entered the residence and took him into custody, attorney Amy Greer told AP.
This is a guy who richly deserves his upcoming repatriation flight.
#BREAKING ICE has detained recent anti-Israel @Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
Khalil was allegedly involved in the takeover of a Barnard building last week and was a leader of Columbia’s encampment last year that disrupted the campus for weeks. pic.twitter.com/A506WEQqHj
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) March 9, 2025
Khalil was still in university-owned housing due to a Columbia policy that allows former students to remain in their housing for months after concluding their studies, which seems like a generous length of time, even in New York. But it was Khalil’s extracurricular activities that drew the attention of ICE.
While a student, Khalil headed up student-run group Apartheid Divest, and was a lead negotiator during last spring’s protracted student protest on campus, in which dozens of tents jammed the lawn of the Morningside Heights campus.
He was also a political affairs officer with UNRWA — the United Nations’ agency that supports Palestinian refugees, which Israel says has been infiltrated by Hamas — from June through November 2023, according to his LinkedIn.
Despite graduating months ago, Khalil still lived in school-provided housing due to a policy allowing students to remain on campus after graduating, a source told The Post.
He has remained active in recent disruptive protests, including last week’s takeover of the Milstein Library at Barnard College. Videos and photographs posted on X depict him holding a bullhorn near the library entrance and engaged in discussion with school administrators.
At that same protest, disturbing literature was being distributed purporting to come directly from the “Hamas Media Office,” including one pamphlet reading “Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” a reference to the Oct. 7 terror attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and resulted the Gaza war.
This is a compelling portrait of a Hamas sympathizer, one who sure seems to admire the actions Hamas took on Oct. 7th. That, alone, is reason enough to revoke his student visa and send him back to Beirut or Syria – Khalil attended university in Beirut but was apparently born in Syria, and honestly, the American citizenry is better off with him in either place. He has arguably committed crimes, but there’s no reason to house and feed him at taxpayers’ expense – just kick him out.
Columbia University, meanwhile, put out a statement that appears to support Khalil.
As agents raided the apartment, the school addressing the presence of agents in the vicinity of the campus, and stated its intention not to cooperate with ICE’s lawful actions except where required by law.
That’s a shameful prevarication, but then, we’ve come to expect that from Columbia University. Oh, they recently released a statement claiming they will address the legitimate concerns of the government over campus antisemitism, but as we have seen in this instance, ICE can address their problems with campus antisemitism much more effectively.
An ICE agent reportedly told Khalil’s lawyer Greer the agency was enforcing a State Department edict to revoke Khalil’s student visa as well as his green card, pursuant to President Trump’s recent pledge to deport foreign student “agitators” responsible for fomenting campus unrest.
Every student visa should be reviewed with this in mind. We simply don’t need such people here. There’s no place for them. They are spreading hatred, they are proponents for a terror group; there can never be a place in the United States for these kinds of views.
