Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia graduate and spokesperson for students mobilised for Gaza, arrested and facing deportation
DATE
LOCATION
TARGETED PERSON/INSTITUTION
Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia University graduate, permanent resident (green card holder), negotiator for the 2024 Gaza student encampment
DOMAIN/FIELD
RESPONSIBLE FOR BAN
Trump administration: State Department (Marco Rubio) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
On 8 March 2025, ICE agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil in a Columbia University residence in Manhattan and transferred him to a detention centre in Jena, Louisiana. The deportation proceedings rely on a provision of immigration law that allows the removal of a person whose presence, in the Secretary of State's view, would have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences" for the United States. The provision was applied to him because of his role in the mobilisations for Palestine.
On 11 April 2025, an immigration judge ruled him deportable on that basis. Separately, a federal judge in New Jersey found the provision likely unconstitutional and ordered his release on 20 June 2025, after more than three months in detention.
In January 2026, a federal appeals court ruled that he must first exhaust his remedies before the immigration courts. In April 2026, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued a final order of removal; the proceedings continue.