The American Civil Liberties Union launched a 2-minute video documenting the arrest final weekend of Mahmoud Khalil, an activist who helped lead many protests on Columbia College’s campus final yr.
“Plainclothes agents detain and take Mahmoud Khalil from his home. His wife, Noor Abdalla, who is 8 months pregnant, recorded the video,” the ACLU wrote in a caption posted to Instagram on Friday.
The video begins with males, apparently federal immigration officers, surrounding Khalil within the foyer of his constructing.
“You’re going to be under arrest,” one man tells Khalil. “Turn around. Turn around. Turn around. Stop resisting.”
The boys place Khalil in handcuffs and escort him out of the constructing and right into a automobile parked out on the road. Abdalla, capturing the change on cellphone, follows the lads outdoors whereas attempting to talk to a lawyer.
She repeatedly asks the lads for his or her names. They refuse to reply Abdalla’s questions searching for identification. The boys inform her solely that Khalil might be taken to immigration custody 26 Federal Plaza.
“Agents refused to show a warrant to his wife and hung up on the family’s attorney who was desperately seeking answers,” the ACLU alleges.
What occurred?
Khalil was detained Saturday night time as he and his spouse have been returning to their Columbia College-owned condo in higher Manhattan by officers from the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety.
The brokers instructed the couple that Khalil was being detained as a result of his scholar visa had been revoked.
When his spouse supplied paperwork proving he was a inexperienced card holder, the brokers stated that was additionally being revoked and took him away in handcuffs, in response to a lawsuit Khalil’s attorneys filed difficult his detention.
Why is he going through deportation?
The Division of Homeland Safety, confirming his arrest Saturday, accused Khalil of main “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
The White Home, elaborating extra on its place Tuesday, claimed Khalil organized protests the place pro-Hamas propaganda was distributed.
“This administration is not going to tolerate individuals having the privilege of studying in our country and then siding with pro-terrorist organizations that have killed Americans,” stated Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary.
A lawyer for Khalil, Samah Sisay, stated there isn’t any proof that his shopper supplied assist of any sort to a terrorist group.
“They’re trying to make an example of him to chill others from making similar speech,” Sisay instructed The Related Press. “Not agreeing with your government’s foreign policy decision to support Israel is not a reason for you to be in deportation proceedings.”
Who’s Mahmoud Khalil?
Khalil was one of the seen activists within the protests final spring at Columbia, which additionally occurred on different school campuses around the globe.
He served as a scholar negotiator — a task that had him talking continuously with college officers and the press.
Extra not too long ago, he was among the many pro-Palestinian activists investigated by a new disciplinary physique at Columbia College centered on harassment and discrimination complaints.
Khalil accomplished his grasp’s diploma in public administration at Columbia’s Faculty of Worldwide and Public Affairs in December.
What’s his authorized standing?
Khalil was born and raised in Syria after his Palestinian grandparents have been faraway from their homeland, in response to his lawsuit.
He got here to the U.S. on a scholar visa in 2022 to pursue his graduate research at Columbia.
Khalil married his spouse, who’s a U.S. citizen, in 2023. He turned a authorized everlasting resident — also called a inexperienced card holder — final yr.
Can the federal government deport inexperienced card holders?
Quick reply: sure. Inexperienced card holders could be deported, however the authorities has the burden to show the particular person is deportable.
Grounds for deportation can vary from being convicted of a variety of crimes, from homicide, assault and housebreaking to tax evasion, home violence and unlawful firearms possession, in response to Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration legislation professional and retired Cornell Regulation Faculty professor.
However a authorized everlasting resident may also be expelled for offering materials assist to a terrorist group, through which case the federal government doesn’t want a felony conviction to carry deportation costs, he stated.
“Material support for immigration purposes is much broader than the criminal definition of the term,” Yale-Loehr defined. “For example, people have been deported for simply providing a cup of water or bowl of rice to guerrilla groups, even under duress.”
The place is Khalil?
Khalil is being held at a federal immigration detention facility in a central Louisiana city roughly 170 miles (275 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans.
The Central Louisiana ICE Processing Heart in Jena, which is a low-slung complicated ringed by barbed wire fences, can maintain about 1,160 detainees.
Louisiana turned a hub for immigrant detention in the course of the first Trump administration and has 9 facilities, most of them run by non-public contractors.
Critics say the remoted complexes reduce prisoners off from quick access to attorneys and household.
“The intent is to kind of break the morale, the spirits, of those that are held at these facilities,” Yasmine Taeb, the legislative and political director for the Muslim activist group MPower Change, instructed reporters Tuesday.
