Tag Archives: Mahmoud Khalil

Associated Press: Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs

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A clear violation of his First Amendment rights:

Facing a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal government has instead submitted a brief memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel noncitizens whose presence in the country damages U.S. foreign policy interests.

…

Rather, Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs.

He said that while Khalil’s activities were “otherwise lawful,” letting him remain in the country would undermine “U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”

Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs
The U.S. government has submitted a two-page memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio as its main evidence in its deportation case against Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil.

https://apnews.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-columbia-university-trump-c60738368171289ae43177660def8d34

Associated Press: A Palestinian student at Columbia is freed after his arrest at a citizenship interview

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A major win for freedom and the First Amendment, a major loss for our wannabe dictator King Donald:

A judge on Wednesday released a Palestinian student at Columbia University who led protests against Israel’s war in Gaza and was arrested by immigration officials during an interview about finalizing his U.S. citizenship.

Immigration authorities have arrested and detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration, many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians.

Mohsen Mahdawi is among the first of those students to win his freedom after challenging an arrest. He walked out of a Vermont courthouse Wednesday and led hundreds of supporters in chants including “No fear” and “Free Palestine.” He said people must come together to defend both democracy and humanity.

A Palestinian student at Columbia is freed after his arrest at a citizenship interview
A judge has released a Palestinian student activist who led protests against the war in Gaza as a student at Columbia University and was arrested by immigration officials during an interview about finalizing his U.S. citizenship.

https://apnews.com/article/mohsen-mahdawi-columbia-student-palestinian-release-dd95ffff78464df1b485d5912f1b3fcb

Associated Press: May Day demonstrations in US and around the globe protest Trump agenda

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Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world rallied Thursday in May Day protests that united many in anger over President Donald Trump’s agenda from aggressive tariffs that are stoking fears of global economic turmoil to his administration’s immigration crackdowns.

In the United States, organizers framed this year’s International Workers’ Day protests as a pushback against what they see as the administration’s sweeping assault on labor protections, diversity initiatives and federal employees. Protesters lined streets in many cities from New York to Philadelphia to Los Angeles and held a boisterous rally outside the White House in Washington.

May Day demonstrations in US and around the globe protest Trump agenda
Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in U.S. cities and around the globe for International Workers’ Day or May Day, with the focus this year on President Donald Trump’s agenda.

https://apnews.com/article/may-day-workers-labor-unions-rallies-marches-trump-46de8196d7f01d7458c3d77ccd5e0e54

NBC News: Students and faculty demand Columbia University stand up to federal government

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Columbia University students, faculty, staff and alumni launched a “speak out” Monday to criticize school leaders for bowing to the Trump administration’s demands after it pulled $400 million in federal funding from the campus.

Hundreds of students, faculty, staff and alumni were expected to take part in the 25-hour event that organizers said was intended to amplify a growing position within the Columbia community that the school administration had caved-in to Washington and that the school’s academic freedom was under attack.

…

The Trump administration told the university last month that it would reinstate the school’s federal funding if it met certain demands, including banning masks on campus and holding disciplinary hearings for student protesters

Students and faculty said they had some demands of their own for the university: fight back against federal attacks; protect and defend students and international scholars; re-establish diversity policies; and protect researchers.

Professors at the rally hoisted signs reading, “Columbia Fight Back,” “Defend Freedom of Speech” and “Protect our Students.”

Authorities have apprehended at least three Columbia students in recent weeks, including graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who was involved in student protests last year.

Students and faculty demand Columbia University stand up to federal government
Columbia University students, faculty, staff and alumni launched a “speak out” Monday to criticize school leaders for bowing to the Trump administration’s demands.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/students-and-faculty-demand-columbia-university-stand-up-to-federal-government/ar-AA1DN5Y6

Axios: Mahmoud Khalil was arrested without a warrant, DHS lawyers say

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Immigration authorities did not have an arrest warrant when agents detained Mahmoud Khalil, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing this week.

The big picture: Khalil, a leader of Columbia’s pro-Palestinian protests, is a legal U.S. resident who has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since last month. His arrest sparked outcry across the U.S.

Zoom in: Government lawyers argue in the filing that DHS was not required to obtain a judicial arrest warrant before taking Khalil, a U.S. green card holder from Syria, into custody on March 8.

  • The “officers had exigent circumstances to conduct the warrantless arrest, it is the pattern and practice of DHS to fully process a respondent once in custody,” wrote the lawyers in the document that was originally filed in immigration court Wednesday and submitted to federal court Thursday

  • They argued agents had reasons to believe Khalil “would escape before they could obtain a warrant” when they approached him inside the foyer of his apartment building.

  • Khalil was eventually served an arrest warrant after being taken into custody and transported to an ICE office in New York.

    The other side: The revelation contradicts what agents told Khalil at the time of his arrest and what agents wrote in the arrest report, Khalil’s lawyer said.

    • “The government’s admission is astounding, and it is completely outrageous that they tried to assert to the immigration judge – and the world – in their initial filing of the arrest report that there was an arrest warrant when there was none,” said Khalil’s attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, in an emailed statement.
    • Van Der Hout called it “egregious conduct by DHS that should require under the law termination of these proceedings.”

      Never forget: Cops lie. All. The. Time.

      Mahmoud Khalil was arrested without a warrant, DHS lawyers Trump admin lawyers say
      The revelation contradicts what agents told Mahmoud Khalil at the time of his arrest, his lawyer said.

      https://www.axios.com/2025/04/24/mahmoud-khalil-detained-ice-arrest-warrant

      AFP: Palestinian protest leader detained by US misses son’s birth

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      Detained pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil missed the birth of his son on Monday after US authorities refused a temporary release, his wife said.

      A graduate student at New York’s Columbia University who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, Khalil was arrested by immigration authorities on March 8.

      He was ordered deported even though he was a permanent US resident through his American citizen wife, Noor Abdalla.

      Abdalla said that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denied a request to release Khalil temporarily for the birth of their child.

      “This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud and our son suffer,” she said in a statement.

      MSN

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/palestinian-protest-leader-detained-by-us-misses-son-s-birth/ar-AA1DlyOg

      Newsweek: US Citizen Detained After Visiting Canada: ‘Treated Like a Criminal’

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      “I literally drove my car to Canada for the weekend, and on the way back, I was treated like a criminal,” Atallah, a New Hampshire real estate attorney who has been an American citizen for 10 years, told NBC10 Boston.

      …

      A CBP official has claimed that Atallah’s account is “blatantly false and sensationalized.”

      “He asked me, ‘Exit the vehicle right now,’ and he reached for his gun,” Atallah said. “I said, ‘OK, I’m exiting the vehicle, keep your gun at your waist.”

      “They handcuffed me, they twisted my arm, my wrist,” he said. “They walked me inside, and I was looking at my wife in the car.”

      “It was like a shock for me,” Fakhri said.

      The real estate attorney asked why he was being detained, according to NBC10 Boston.

      “Even if you ask questions, they say, ‘We don’t know, it’s the government,'” he said.

      Atallah says he began feeling unwell and asked for medical assistance. An EMS report indicated he had high blood pressure and required additional care, but he declined treatment after U.S. Border Patrol agents explained the next steps they planned to take.

      “They’re definitely going to escort me to the hospital and have an officer guard me and being me back and start from zero,” he said.

      ah says CBP agents asked to access his email on his phone, but he refused, citing attorney-client privilege.

      “So I had to, under duress, give him permission to look through my email, through my privileged information, and he made me write a statement, signed by me, saying that I gave him permission to look through the email,” Atallah said.

      After several requests, Atallah says CBP contacted his sister, an immigration attorney. Nearly five hours later, he and his wife were released—and are now pursuing legal action.

      MSN

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-citizen-detained-after-visiting-canada-treated-like-a-criminal/ar-AA1D1qXa

      LA Times: UCLA international student detained at U.S.-Mexico border amid Trump visa cancellations

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      A UCLA international graduate student has been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border and is being held by Customs and Border Protection, the school confirmed late Thursday.

      The student, whose name was not released, was taken into custody Wednesday night, according to faculty members and students who quickly organized a campus rally in her support Thursday evening.

      …

      Few details were released about the student, including her name and nationality. Faculty, and an immigration attorney who has been attempting to contact the student, said late Thursday they had not yet spoken to her. They added that the student was detained at the San Ysidro border crossing south of San Diego and was able to reach a UCLA contact before she was taken into custody.

      It is unclear why the student was in Mexico or what led to her detention.

      Earlier in April:

      On April 4, UC San Diego said an international student there was also detained at the U.S.-Mexico border while attempting to cross. In a campus message, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said the student was “detained at the border, denied entry and deported to their home country.”

      UCLA international student detained at U.S.-Mexico border amid Trump visa cancellations
      UCLA confirmed that an international student was detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. A campus rally was quickly organized in her support.

      https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-04-17/ucla-international-student-detained-us-mexico-border

      CNN: Trump’s retribution sends a chilling message to dissenters

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      Donald Trump’s White House has a threatening message for anyone who might even be perceived to disagree with the president: Don’t. Or else.

      Even though he has promised to end what he viewed as “weaponization” of the Department of Justice, Trump is treating people who disagree with him more like the “enemy from within” he talked about during the presidential campaign.

      The president took the unusual step this week of issuing official proclamations ordering the federal investigations of people who worked in his first administration.

      He’s demanding free work from law firms who represented his perceived enemies, threatening to impeach judges, deporting campus protesters and so much more.

      The underlying message, for anyone who hasn’t put all these things together, is that dissent will not be tolerated under Trump 2.0.

      Analysis: Trump’s retribution sends a chilling message to dissenters | CNN Politics
      Donald Trump’s White House has a threatening message for anyone who might even be perceived to disagree with the president: Don’t. Or else.

      https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/12/politics/trump-krebs-khalil-taylor-crackdown-dissent-what-matters/index.html

      Washington Post: Khalil ruling to test Trump deportation tactic of sending detainees to Louisiana

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      Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil’s attorneys were stunned when an immigration judge in Jena, Louisiana, announced this week that she would rule on whether he should be deported on Friday — three days after his initial court appearance.

      “That is, in my opinion, contrary to every notion of due process,” Marc Van Der Hout, one of his attorneys, told reporters Thursday.

      …

      Though they remain detained in Louisiana as their immigration court proceedings move forward, Khalil and Ozturk successfully blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to establish federal court jurisdiction in that state. Their attorneys argued that the government secretly arrested the scholars and shuttled them between locations without public disclosure to make it more difficult for them to file habeas corpus petitions in courts closer to home.

      A federal judge in New York ruled last month that Khalil’s lawsuit alleging the government violated his constitutional rights to free speech should take place in New Jersey, where he was briefly held before being transferred. His attorneys said that even if the immigration judge in Louisiana rules he can be deported, his federal court challenge could stop his removal if they are victorious.

      …

      The administration’s strategy “is to isolate the individuals from their communities, their legal support, their families, in hopes that media attention and mobilization around their cases dies down,” said Ramzi Kassem, co-director at CLEAR, a legal nonprofit and clinic at City University of New York that is representing Khalil and Ozturk.

      …

      The unusual aspect of the Trump administration’s approach, Sandweg said, is how quickly federal authorities relocated the university scholars. Detainee transfers can take up to two weeks, he said, but the Trump administration moved them within days.

      Pointing to Khalil’s case, Sandweg said it raises “very complicated questions of the First Amendment. If you know this case is headed to the courts well in advance, the speed in which he was taken to Louisiana so quickly is unusual. That means they were thinking about those legal issues before the operation and had a plan to get him on the plane to Louisiana.”

      Khalil ruling tests Trump deportation tactic of sending detainees to Louisiana
      Attorneys have contended the Trump administration is purposely holding detained students in ICE facilities in conservative judicial districts.

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/khalil-ruling-to-test-trump-deportation-tactic-of-sending-detainees-to-louisiana/ar-AA1CJ2QI