Tom Homan, the border czar under Donald Trump’s administration, suggested that Mahmoud Khalil might just be the beginning of a series of green card holders facing deportation. This is part of Trump’s aggressive measures targeting both legal and illegal immigrants.
President Trump celebrated the apprehension of Khalil, indicating that it was only the start of a larger operation. However, it’s worth noting that Khalil is a lawful permanent resident who has not been found guilty of any criminal activities.
Khalil, originally from Palestine and raised in Syria, gained attention for his involvement in anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University. Furthermore, he played a vital role as a mediator between students and the university administration during protests.
A judge has since stepped in to temporarily block the deportation of the 27-year-old pro-Palestine activist, pending a further ruling on the matter.
Homan, who has led Trump’s agenda on the border at full force, said that ‘absolutely we can’ deport green card holders such as Khalil.
‘Did he violate the terms of his visa? Did he violate the terms of his residency here, you know, committing crimes, attacking Israeli students, locking down buildings, destroying property? Absolutely,’ he told Fox Business.
However, Khalil has yet to be convicted of a crime, which complicates Homan’s assertion that he violated his visas terms.
Nevertheless, Homan reiterated that Khalil could be just the first of many visa holders sent packing.
‘Any resident alien who commits a crime is eligible for deportation,’ he said of anti-Israel protesters on American campuses. ‘And that’s just one out of many.’
Khalil was detained by ICE officers on Saturday night – who said they’d been given an order to revoke his green card – in front of his pregnant wife.
But a federal judge Jesse Furman, from the Southern District of New York, poured cold water on Trump’s plan on Monday.
Furman blocked the administration from deporting Khalil until at least the next court hearing on Wednesday.
The court order, seen by DailyMail.com, states: ‘To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise.’
Furman was nominated to the Southern District court by President Obama in 2011 and was confirmed in February 2012.
The protests at Columbia were allowed to run rampant for two weeks. They were marked by violent assaults and instances of Jewish students being afraid to go to class.
‘On March 9, 2025, in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student,’ the Department of Homeland Security said Sunday.
‘Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,’
Trump said the ICE agents who arrested Khalil did so with pride, describing him as ‘a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University.
‘We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.
‘Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again.
‘If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here.’
In a direct warning to universities and colleges across the nation, Trump said they are expected to ‘comply’ with this decision.
Khalil, who graduated in December, is in custody at an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, according to federal records.
Activists who are lobbying for Khalil’s release say he was confronted at 8:30pm in his apartment building by two plain clothes DHS agents, both of whom refused to identify themselves at first.
His wife, who is eight months pregnant and a US citizen, was allegedly there as well. The activists said she was threatened with arrest if she ‘remained by his side.’
In the United States, immigration judges are the only people with the authority to revoke permanent residency.
Grounds for revocation include lying on your green card application or committing certain types of felonies.
According to a legal filing, ‘ICE began efforts to transfer Mr. Khalil out of [New York] and to a Louisiana detention facility a thousand miles away, without providing him any access to his counsel.’
‘This seemingly retaliatory action is particularly troubling,’ the filing states.
Khalil’s arrest comes as Trump announced he would be cutting $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia for its failure to contain the pro-Palestinian protests.
