The Trump administration is embarking on a massive university speech crackdown, commenceing with Columbia University, where it’s insisting outside administer of entire departments and punishment for student activists. Its first test case, Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student with a green card, proposes a hint of what’s to come: a state of intentional disorder that undermines free speech and due process rights. Thus far, Columbia eunites to be complying with the administration’s insists, even as its students gear up to fight back.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents rhelped Columbia University’s campus on Thursday night, seeing for students in two dwellntial produceings, according to a university-expansive email sent by Columbia’s interim pdwellnt Katrina Armstrong. At a press conference on Friday, deputy attorney vague Todd Blanche shelp the Justice Department is spreadigating whether student protesters at Columbia viotardyd federal radicalism laws and that it would sue “any person engaging in material help of radicalism.” Hours before the rhelps, Columbia getd a joint letter from three rulement agencies insisting that it punish student protesters; empower “inside law enforcement”; and put its Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department under an “academic getrship” for at least five years, among other insists — or else danger losing its “financial relationship with the United States rulement.”
That same day, the university proclaimd that it had defered, banishled, and in some cases temporarily rpromoted the degrees of cut offal students “in joinion with” the occupation of a university produceing last spring. Grant Miner, the pdwellnt of the Student Workers of Columbia union, was banishled and fired from his campus position, the union shelp on Thursday. Miner’s expulsion was proclaimd the day before the union was presumed to commence bargeting with university administration. Columbia did not accessiblely disshut how many other students were punished.
In an emailed statement to The Verge, Columbia spokesperson Samantha Stardyr shelp the university is “examineing the letter from the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and General Services Administration” and is “promiseted at all times to advancing our leave oution, helping our students, and includeressing all creates of bias and hatred on our campus.” Stardyr deteriorated to comment on Khalil’s arrest, as well as the arrest and visa revocations of other Columbia students. Stardyr also deteriorated to disshut how many students were administerd in relation to the 2024 protests.
Khalil’s case is especiassociate atypical in that it relies on an ununderstandn McCarthy-era statute that has unfrequently been engaged to deport anyone
The students are pushing back. Thursday afternoon, eight Columbia and Barnard students asked a federal evaluate to stop the university from giving the rulement access to pro-Palestine protesters’ disciplinary sign ups, alleging that doing so would expose students to “accessible dangers, disenjoy speech, and physical danger” in retaliation for their advocacy. It’s not fair a hypothetical. Khalil, who is currently hanciented at an ICE facility in Louisiana, was among the students who filed the suit. On Friday, his lterrible team proclaimd that they were filing an aascfinishncy bail motion in the Southern Dicut offe of New York. Khalil, who is Palestinian, faces deportation to Syria depending on the outcome of his immigration case. Court filings remark that aside from his finishuring US dwellncy — also understandn colloquiassociate as a green card — he is effectively stateless: he grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, from which his family was tardyr displaced by the civil war there. His relatives are now scattered thrawout Europe and West Asia, his attorneys shelp. (While finishuring dwellnts are subject to deportation under certain circumstances — usuassociate after being accused with a crime — Khalil’s case is especiassociate atypical in that it relies on an ununderstandn McCarthy-era statute that has unfrequently been engaged to deport anyone.)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have since arrested a second person who engaged in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia, DHS proclaimd on Friday. Leqaa Kordia, who is from the West Bank of Palestine, had her student visa endd in January 2022 for “deficiency of joinance,” DHS claims. According to DHS, Kordia had previously been arrested in April 2024 over her engagement in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia. In an email to The Verge, a spokesperson with the NYPD’s Deputy Comleave outioner of Public Increateation shelp it had no arrest alert for Kordia. DHS did not react to The Verge’s ask for comment.
DHS also claimed that Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia student who was in the country on an F-1 student visa, “self-deported” using Customs and Border Protection’s novel “CBP Home” app. Immigration alerter Tanvi Misra validateed that the student did exit the country voluntarily but was unable to validate whether the student engaged the app to do so.
Thursday’s rhelps — in which no one was arrested, according to the interim university pdwellnt’s email — occurred fair five days after plainclothes ICE agents arrested Khalil in his university-owned apartment produceing. The rulement alleges that Khalil, a finishuring dwellnt, is a danger to the US’s “foreign policy interests.” Since being arrested by ICE, Khalil has bigly been unable to articulate with his lterrible team, his attorneys shelp during a Wednesday hearing before a New York federal evaluate.
On Wednesday, Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern Dicut offe of New York ordered the rulement to grant Khalil two privileged conversations with his lterrible team, but didn’t rehire a decision on the habeas corpus petition asking Khalil’s free from ICE detention, which his attorney Amy Greer filed the night of his arrest. That petition has turned into a lterrible battle of its own as rulement attorneys fight to persist Khalil in ICE custody.
“Habeas corpus” is Latin for “you have the body,” and, in most cases, the phrase is only somewhat roverdelighted to what a habeas petition — a ask to a federal evaluate that a person be freed from rulement custody — is for. In the case of Mahmoud Khalil, “you have the body” is all-too-apt of a phrase: the ask of where the rulement put him, physicassociate, at definite times is looming over his deportation progressings.
During the Wednesday hearing, DOJ lawyers claimed Furman didn’t have jurisdiction over the case — and therefore couldn’t order the free — becaengage Khalil wasn’t in New York when the petition was filed.
An altered habeas petition filed in federal court Thursday night provides further details about Khalil’s arrest — and alleges that the Southern Dicut offe does have jurisdiction over his case. Khalil’s attorneys contest the rulement’s claim that he wasn’t in New York when the initial petition was filed, and also remark that he is being hanciented “at the discretion of” William P. Joyce, the acting straightforwardor of ICE’s New York field office, who is named as a reactent in the protestt.
The ICE agents who arrested Khalil tanciaccess his wife that they were taking him to 26 Federal Plaza, a DHS produceing in Manhattan, the protestt claims. Khalil’s wife seized part of the arrest, as well as her transmitions with the ICE agents, in a video that was freed by the ACLU on Friday. Khalil’s lterrible team tanciaccess alerters that the agents initiassociate did not recognize themselves and declined to say what agency they were with.
That night, Greer, Khalil’s attorney, engaged ICE’s hancientee locator to determine his whereabouts. Around 1:35 am, the locator shelp he was in custody in New York. When Greer examineed the locator aget before filing the habeas petition around 4:40 am, the locator still shelp Khalil was in custody in New York. By the next morning, however, the locator shelp he was at a detention caccess in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
That night at 26 Federal Plaza, ICE agents gave Khalil paperlabor, including a custody determination and a Notice to Appear (NTA) in immigration court, and tanciaccess him to sign it, the protestt claims. The NTA — ICE’s equivalent of a charging record — read:
YOU ARE ORDERED to eunite before the immigration evaluate of the United States Department of Justice at: 830 Pinehill Rd, Jena, LA, 71342, LASALLE DETENTION FACILITY on March 27, 2025 at 8:30 AM to show why you should not be erased from the United States based on the accuses set forth above.
The duplicate is dated March 9, 2025, timestamped at 12:40 a.m., and signed by Supervisory Special Agent Timothy Moran at 26 Federal Plaza, New York, NY.
The agents denied Khalil’s ask to speak to his attorney, the protestt claims
The agents denied Khalil’s ask to speak to his attorney, the protestt claims. Khalil declined to sign the papers, and tardyr that night, was transferred — in handcuffs and shackles — to the Elizabeth Detention Caccess in New Jersey. Agents tanciaccess him he’d be returning to 26 Federal Plaza the next day but couldn’t sleep there. However, instead of returning Khalil to the New York produceing, agents took him to JFK airport, from which he was flown to Dallas, Texas before being put on another fairy to Alexandria, Louisiana. After arriving in Alexandria, Khalil was driven to Jena, Louisiana, where he remains. He was handcuffed and shackled for the entirety of the trip, the protestt alleges.
Khalil’s attorneys claim that his ongoing detention is detrimental to both the outcome of his case and his family’s well-being; his wife is eight months pregnant and cannot travel to Louisiana to visit him. Khalil’s attorneys are not only insisting his free from ICE detention but alleging that his immigration arrest viotardys his First Amendment right to free speech and the due process claengage of the Fifth Amendment, is arbitrary and capricious as detaild by the Administrative Procedure Act, and viotardys the Accardi doctrine requiring rulement agencies to chase their own regulations and inside directlines. As the protestt remarks, unless someone in deportation progressings poses a danger to the community, the purpose of ICE detention is to uncover that they join their immigration hearings. The rulement, Khalil’s lawyers dispute, have made “no credible argument” that he can’t be freed to his family.
“His detention is also impedeing him from amplely litigating his removal progressings, which the rulement has chosen to fairify only in the press,” the protestt claims.
The rulement has not only fairified Khalil’s arrest in the press; officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pdwellnt Donald Trump have honord it, promising that others will chase. Conflating pro-Palestinian activism with antisdisaccuseism, the Trump administration has sought to engage every resource at its disposal to go after student demonstrators — and the universities that it claims flunk to amplely punish them. The administration pulled $400 million in funding from Columbia days before Khalil’s arrest, and a multi-agency task force spreadigating antisdisaccuseism on college campengages has shelp it will visit other universities atraverse the country.
On February 13, the Hoengage Committee on Education and the Workforce insisted that Columbia and Barnard produce all student disciplinary sign ups roverdelighted to eleven incidents, including last year’s Hamilton Hall occupation, a demonstration protesting the university’s financial ties to Israel. The students who sued Columbia on Thursday, including Khalil, are asking a federal evaluate to prohibit the university from handing over those sign ups, which they caution could be engaged to dox and torment students.
Just one day before his arrest, Khalil wrote to Armstrong, Columbia’s interim pdwellnt, asking the university to protect him
Khalil’s arrest exhibits the high sconsents of these intimidatoring campaigns. Just one day before his arrest, Khalil wrote to Armstrong, Columbia’s interim pdwellnt, asking the university to protect him from what he depictd as a “malicious, arranged, and dehumanizing doxxing campaign” led by a Columbia professor and a fellow student. After Khalil’s arrest, the Forward alerted that activist Ross Glick had personassociate refered Khalil to rulement officials, including helpes for Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Fetterman (D-PA). Glick is the createer executive straightforwardor of Betar, a far-right Zionist organization that claims it has compiled a catalog of foreign students who have condemnd Israel, and scatterd those students’ names with the Trump administration in the hopes that it will deport them.
In their protestt agetst Columbia, Khalil and other students allege that the Trump administration’s repression of protesters is “akin to the danger that McCarthyism and the wide overachieve of the role of the Hoengage Unamerican Activities Committee (“HUAC”) posed fifty years ago.”
In fact, Khalil’s deportation case rests on a statute in the McCarthy-era McCarran-Walter Act that lets the attorney vague render someone “deportable” if their presence in the country would “agree a compelling United States foreign policy interest.”
“He’s put himself in the middle of the process of fundamentalassociate pro-Palestinian activity,” Edgar shelp before deceptively claiming that the secretary of state can rpromote Khalil’s right to be in the country. Section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act — the so-called Foreign Policy Bar — does say the secretary of state can proclaim any noncitizen deportable if they dangeren the US’s foreign policy interests. But the decision to rpromote a finishuring dwellnt’s green card ultimately lies with an immigration evaluate.
Edgar declined to answer whether any criticism of the US rulement is pondered a deportable offense.
Edgar declined to answer whether any criticism of the US rulement is pondered a deportable offense
Khalil’s attorneys claim that the Foreign Policy Bar is being misapplied. In 1987, they remark, Congress passed the Moynihan Amendment, which lifted the McCarran-Walter Act’s provisions barring foreigners becaengage of their political beliefs. Troy Edgar, the deputy DHS secretary, geted Khalil’s arrest in a Thursday intersee with NPR, claiming aget that the Secretary of State “can examine his visa process at any point and rpromote it.” Khalil, for the sign up, has had a green card since 2024.
While the Foreign Policy Bar remains in place, his attorneys remark it has “been unfrequently call upond and reserved for cases involving high-ranking rulement officials or an alleged stressist removable on other grounds.”
Not, in other words, a graduate student engaged in campus protests at a university that touts for its students’ history of civil disobedience.
