Mahmoud Khalil, following his launch from ICE custody in June 2025.
Photograph by Dean Moses
Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian protest organizer at Columbia College whose detainment final 12 months made nationwide headlines, can be re-detained by ICE and deported, a Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson stated Wednesday.
Khalil, who has a legitimate inexperienced card, was initially arrested on March 8, 2025, and held in ICE detention for a number of months in 2025 for what officers stated, on the time, was his function within the Columbia College protests. He was held for a number of months earlier than a protracted authorized battle secured his launch.
Now, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Trish McLaughlin claims Khalil is not going to solely be retaken into custody, however he will even be deported to Algeria. Khalil was born in Syria.
Khalil has but to reply to McLaughlin, however has repeatedly denied claims that he helps violence.
Khalil grew to become an early goal of the Trump administration, with the advocate being accused of supporting Hamas, a terrorist group, and mendacity on paperwork he used to use for everlasting U.S. residency. Supporters of Khalil proclaimed him a political prisoner being persecuted by the Trump regime; his 2025 detention sparked large protests.
Mahmoud Khalil on the mayoral election of Zohran Mamdani.Photograph by Dean Moses
When he was launched in June following a U.S. Court docket of Appeals resolution, a whole bunch gathered to greet him at a rally on the steps of St. John the Divine, the place he described his expertise held in detention.
“I shared a dorm with over 70 men, absolutely no privacy, lights on all the time. I spent my days listening to one tragic story after another, listening to a father of four whose wife is battling cancer and he’s in detention,” Khalil stated. “I listened to a story of an individual who has been in the United States for over 20 years, all his children are American, yet he’s been deported. It’s so normal in detention to see men cry.”
Most just lately, Khalil attended the inauguration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Final week, the mayor posted on X (Twitter) that the activist have to be allowed to stay within the U.S.
“Last year’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil was more than just a chilling act of political repression; it was an attack on all of our constitutional rights,” Mamdani wrote on Jan. 16. “Now, as the crackdown on pro-Palestinian free speech continues, Mahmoud is being threatened with rearrest. Mahmoud is free—and must remain free.”
