Trump Administration Targets University over Gaza Protests
Catherine Anderson
Staff Writer
United States immigration officials arrested and detained a Columbia University graduate student, Mahmoud Khalil, on March 8 because of his role in pro-Palestinian protests, Reuters reports. Khalil, a Palestinian student who grew up in Syria, was arrested and brought to Louisiana.
Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa. However, upon discovering that he was a permanent resident with a green card, they said they would revoke that as well and continued with the arrest, CBS News reports.
As Politico reports, Khalil, whose wife is eight months pregnant and a U.S. citizen, was one of the leaders of the student protests at Columbia University last spring. While similar protests occurred at universities across the country, those at Columbia received particular media focus.
Like many students across the country, Columbia students set up an encampment on campus. Their protest called for their university to cut ties with Israel by divesting and canceling plans to build a “global center” in Tel Aviv. Additionally, they demanded amnesty for protesters, Politico says.
The arrest, which has sparked protests, is just one of several measures the Trump administration has taken in its crackdown on university protests. Prior to Khalil’s arrest, the administration pulled $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University in response to what is called “antisemitism on campus,” BBC News says.
In addition to cutting federal funding, the Department of Education sent letters to over 60 universities and colleges, stating that they were under investigation for “‘antisemitic harassment and discrimination’” and threatening further legal action if they did not “‘protect Jewish students,’” Al Jazeera says. Following the Trump administration’s threats, the university announced that it would revoke degrees and suspend or expel students involved in these protests.
Critics of the Trump administration and Khalil’s arrest have said that the move is concerning, while his lawyers have said that the arrest has “no basis in law,” CNN reports. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed that Khalil was arrested for his support of Hamas, but per CBS News, neither he nor the Trump administration has provided any evidence of terrorism or support for Hamas. Khalil’s lawyers say that he is being punished for exercising his right to protest. The arrest has led to ongoing protests in New York, including some at Trump’s residence in the city, CNN says.
The Trump administration has not backed down.
In a similar case, a professor at Brown University was deported to Lebanon despite holding a valid visa, NBC News reports. Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old Lebanese citizen with an H1-B Visa, traveled to Lebanon to visit her family. Upon her return, she was detained at Boston Logan International Airport and held for 36 hours. She was deported to Lebanon because she attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, NBC News says. Tens of thousands of people attended this funeral, but the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying that “supporting a terrorist” is “grounds for visa issuance to be denied,” NBC News reports.
As CBS News reports, Rubio said that the administration would continue to arrest and deport pro-Palestinian protesters like Khalil.
He further claimed that student protesters were engaging in terrorism, had taken over and “vandalized” buildings, and that the administration would review and revoke green cards for those involved. Rubio claimed that when people emigrate to the U.S. on a green card or visa, they do so as “guests,” giving the administration the right to revoke those green cards if they engage in activity such as “pro-Hamas” protests, CBS News says.
CBS News also reports that when asked whether only pro-Palestinian protesters were being targeted, Rubio said that members of the Tren de Aragua prison gang were also being pursued because “‘we don’t want terrorists in America.’”
Image courtesy of Getty Images.
