ICE Arrested Legal U.S. Resident for Protesting the Genocide of Palestinians at Columbia – Jezebel
Source Link
Excerpt:
On Saturday evening, following reports of ICE agents in Columbia University student housing, recent graduate Mahmoud Khalil was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in front of his wife, who is eight months pregnant. During Khalil’s time as a student at Columbia, he was a vocal pro-Palestine student activist and leading figure in organizing student encampments to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Columbia’s ties to Israel. Khalil served as a key negotiator with the university during the encampment protests last spring, which drew horrific police violence sanctioned by the university.
ICE officers approached Khalil and his wife, who is an American citizen, at the entrance of their student housing building around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. The agents reportedly told Khalil, who is Palestinian and graduated in December, that the State Department had revoked his student visa, even though Khalil has a green card and is a legal resident. His wife went to their apartment to retrieve his green card, while Khalil put his lawyer, Amy Greer, on the phone and tried to have the agents speak to her. The agents claimed Khalil’s green card had been revoked, too. When Greer tried to ask why Khalil was being detained, if the agents had a warrant, and also repeated that he has a green card, the agents hung up.
