Free speech and civil rights organizations along with Democratic lawmakers are expressing anger over the Trump administration’s new imprisonment of the man who helped guide destructive pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University over the last year.
” Mahmoud Khalil, 30, who graduated in December from Columbia with a master’s degree from its School of International and Public Affairs, was arrested by emigration officials in New York on Saturday and sent to a detention centre in Louisiana. Mr. Khalil, who has Israeli history, holds a natural card and is married to an American citizen who is eight times pregnant”, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A federal prosecutor is now reviewing a petition to end Khalil’s imprisonment. However, 14 Congressional Democrats are demanding his discharge, including” Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
I’m joining 13 of my associates to require that the Trump Administration promptly releases Mahmoud Khalil. Their illegal activities set a dangerous law. We may allow them to tear our constitutional rights to free speech and expected process. Clean Mahmoud Khalil. photograph. twitter.com/G9YxBeDZvh
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib ( @RepRashida ) March 11, 2025
The ACLA has launched a” Free Mahmoud Khalil” plan, arguing the First Amendment “does not allow the government to fight against someone for their speech”.
” Ripping people from their house, stripping them of their immigration position, and detaining them purely based on political stance is a clear attempt by President Trump to silence dissent. And that’s clearly illegal. Political speech – yet contentious some may find it – may never be the foundation for abuse, including deportation”, the ACLU stated.
Carolina DeCell, a top staff attorney for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia, told The Hill that” for green card holders in the United States, they’re entitled to almost the entire range of First Amendment right that U. S. people are as well”.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is also calling for responses from the Trump administration, stating in a email:” Presentations occurring on Columbia’s school since Oct. 7, 2023, have included both constitutionally protected speech and unlawful do, but the state has not made clear the scientific or legal base for Mr. Khalil’s imprisonment”.
” … This lack of clarity is chilling protected appearance, as other permanent people don’t know whether their lawful speech may be deemed to ‘ correlate to ‘ a terrorist organization and harm their immigration position”.
But the New York Times reports Trump representatives may include a situation:
The Trump presidency did not publicly throw out the legal jurisdiction for the imprisonment. But two people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to explore sensitive internal discussion, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio relied on a clause of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that gives him sweeping authority to remove immigrants.
The clause says that any “alien whose appearance or hobbies in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have probably serious adverse foreign policy implications for the United States is deportable”.
President Trump defended the arrest on Truth Social on Monday, stating it’s” the first arrest of many to come”.
” 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”, Trump wrote. ” 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. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply”.
Some pro-Israel accounts on X have also posted about Khalil’s actions at Columbia, arguing they went beyond peaceful political protests.
” Mahmoud Khalil led a student group that openly declared its mission was to ‘ fight for the total eradication of Western civilization ‘ while taking instructions from terrorist organizations. How much more evidence do people need”, posted Eyal Yakoby on X.
The arrest came just after the Trump administration also pulled$ 400 million in federal funds from Columbia University, citing concerns over rampant and unchecked antisemitism at the Ivy League institution.
And in January, anti-Israel protestors barged into an Israeli history class at Columbia to pass out pro-Hamas flyers that showed the Star of David being destroyed.
As The College Fix also previously reported, a protest at Columbia last spring  , resulted , in more than 200 arrests and prompted the university to cancel graduation. Then, in August, three administrators resigned after being caught mocking Jewish leaders and students in a series of texts,  , The Fix , reported , at the time.
Last year, the university also disciplined Jewish Israeli Professor Shai Davidai, suspending him from campus” for speaking out against anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-American terrorism”, according to his X , profile.
Davidai, who teaches at the Columbia Business School, said an imam encouraged pro-Palestinian students on campus to “take]him ] out” during an August webinar,  , The Fix , reported.
MORE: ‘ Crush Zionism ‘: Pro-Hamas protestors barge into Israeli history class at Columbia
IMAGE: Screenshot / X Senate Judiciary Democrats account
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