The contentious arrest of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who played a key role in organising the pro-Palestine protests at the Ivy League campus last year, has sparked outrage and raised concerns about free speech protections in the United States.
Khalil, a 29-year-old Palestinian student, was arrested from his university residence in New York’s upper Manhattan over the weekend by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who said they would revoke his permanent residency – popularly known as a green card – at the behest of the Department of State. Though no federal charges have been pressed against Khalil.
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“This is the first arrest of many to come,” President Donald Trump wrote on Monday on his Truth Social platform, describing Khalil as “a radical foreign pro-Hamas student”.
In his first week into the presidency, Trump had pledged to deport students who joined protests against Israel’s war on Gaza that swept US university campuses last year. Students demanded universities divest from companies linked to Israel and a ceasefire to end the war that has killed more than 61,000 people, according to the Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip.
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Trump has also threatened to halt federal funding for schools, colleges, and universities if they allow what he called “illegal protests”. Days before Khalil’s arrest, Trump axed $400m in federal funding to Columbia University.
So, can a green card be revoked? What kind of protections do its holders have? And how does this fit into the broader context of student protests in the US and free speech?
Who is Mahmoud Khalil?
Khalil served as the lead negotiator for the pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia – a role that required him to speak to university officials and the media. Before his arrest on Saturday, Khalil told the Reuters news agency that he was concerned about being targeted by the government for speaking to the press.
“Clearly, Trump is using the protesters as a scapegoat for his wider agenda [of] fighting and attacking higher education and the Ivy League education system,” he told Reuters.
Khalil’s lawyer Amy Greer told the Time magazine her client was being targeted for his political activism and opposition to Israeli policies. She added that Khalil had not committed any crime or violated the terms of his residency.
In media interviews, Khalil has said his activism has no place for anti-Semitism.
“As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other,” he told CNN last year.
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“I always say that we are the lucky ones that made it here to speak for our people who are under oppression in Palestine and across the refugee camps and the Palestinian cities,” he said.
Khalil completed his master’s degree from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in December 2024.
He was granted a green card last year. His wife, who is a US citizen, is eight months pregnant.
The Palestinian student was born and raised in Syria, where his grandparents moved after fleeing Tiberias, now in present-day Israel. More than 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed by Jewish militias in the lead-up to the birth of Israel in 1948. The Palestinians remember their expulsion from their homeland as Nakba, the catastrophe.
He attended Lebanese American University, earning his bachelor’s degree in computer science, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Khalil previously worked at the British embassy in Beirut from 2018 to 2022, according to the Middle East Eye site. He was the local manager for the Syria Chevening Scholarship, a prestigious United Kingdom government scheme.
Can the US deport Khalil?
Yes, but it would face legal challenges. Despite being referred to as permanent residents and having similar rights to US citizens, green card holders are not entirely immune from deportation, and their status can be revoked for certain limited conditions, according to experts Al Jazeera spoke to.
These conditions include committing crimes, engaging in fraud, or being deemed a national security threat – and even then, the person may challenge the deportation orders in court.
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However, political speech is not a valid reason for revocation, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said.
“Green card holders are entitled to the same First Amendment protections as US citizens,” she said. Whitson said Khalil’s arrest is a “clear effort to silence all speech in support of Palestinian rights”.
In Khalil’s case, the burden of proof rests with the government to prove that he violated US immigration laws and that he posed a national security threat.
Zaha Hassan, a human rights lawyer, said it appears that Khalil is being “singled out because of the views he holds”.
“That would violate his right to free speech,” Hassan told Al Jazeera.
Hassan said the Trump administration appears to be arguing that Khalil’s involvement in the protests and his calls for a ceasefire in Gaza amounts to support for Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US government.
“A court will have to decide if speech that supports Palestinian freedom and human rights is the same thing as support for terrorism under the respective immigration statutes,” she said.
A federal court has temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation. The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Jenin Younes, a civil liberties and free speech lawyer, said the government appears to be claiming that Khalil constitutes a threat to national security “on rather nebulous grounds: that the government has a policy of combating anti-Semitism around the world, and the protests at Columbia that Khalil helped organise fostered an anti-Semitic environment”.
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Trump’s executive orders were designed to target alleged anti-Semitism on university campuses and even created a task force devoted to combating alleged anti-Semitic speech, which campaigners say has been used to target critics of Israel.
This speech includes “various types of criticism of the state of Israel”, Younes explained.
Khalil has not publicly said anything that would support such charges being levelled against him.
Since Khalil has not been charged with, let alone convicted of, a crime, that “cannot serve as the grounds for deporting him,” Younes said.
What protections do green card holders and foreign students have?
While green card holders have more rights than visa holders, they are not as protected as US citizens.
They can work and live permanently in the US, but certain legal infractions or government determinations can lead to deportation proceedings.
“The Trump administration seems to be testing the waters to see how far they can go in abridging civil liberties,” Hassan said. “Immigrants and vulnerable groups that have been the subject of discrimination and prejudice are easy targets in such cases.”
Foreign students, who typically hold F-1 visas, have fewer protections. They must adhere to strict immigration rules, including limits on political activity.
“There has been reporting that the administration intends to deploy AI technology to scan social media accounts of foreign students,” Hassan said. “That would facilitate the administration’s intention to go after many more individuals.”
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What exactly is Khalil being accused of?
We do not know. The exact charges against him remain unclear, but US Homeland Security officials have suggested that his activism may pose a national security concern, though there is no clear evidence.
The Department of Homeland Security said “Khalil led activities aligned with Hamas” but did not charge him with a crime. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported”. However, authorities have yet to provide evidence that Khalil was a Hamas supporter.
Khalil is being held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, which Younes suggests could be a deliberate move by the government to separate him from his family as a means to “break him down emotionally”.
“I suspect the government transferred him to get before a more conservative [favourable] immigration judge. It also makes him harder to collaborate with his attorneys”, who are in the New York and New Jersey area, she said.
Jena is about 2,187km (1,359 miles) south of New York.
Accusations of anti-Semitism at Columbia
An encampment set up by student protesters on the Columbia campus last year became the epicentre of a nationwide campaign at US universities demanding that Washington stop its unconditional support for Israel, amid the devastating war on Gaza.
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The protests resulted in mass arrests and student suspensions, ending in the resignation of the university’s president, Minouche Shafik, several months later.
The protests have faced allegations of anti-Semitism, but rights groups argue these claims are being used to suppress criticism of Israeli policies.
The protests focused on condemning Israel’s military actions in the besieged Gaza Strip and called for divestment from companies linked to illegal Israeli settlements that infringe on Palestinian lands. Students demanded that the university sever financial ties with organisations linked to the Israeli government and its defence industry.
Since Khalil’s arrest, the movement has shifted to include demands for his release. People have staged protests in New York, demanding his release.
More than 2.7 million people have signed a petition demanding Khalil’s release.
Is it an attack on free speech?
Khalil’s detention also raises serious ethical concerns about the limits of free speech and the role of universities when it comes to the protection of their staff and students.
Activists as well as media have been alarmed as they see the crackdown as an attack on the First Amendment protection of free speech.
The outcome of Khalil’s case could set an important precedent for other international students who participate in protests.
If the US government is ultimately successful in its mission to deport Khalil, that is a “harbinger of unprecedented authoritarian crackdowns on political speech”, Younes said.
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His arrest has already created a “chilling effect on university campuses”, Whitson said, and has harmed countless students whose rights have been infringed.
“Universities have a duty to ensure free speech, freedom of protest and academic freedom,” she added.
“They should condemn the Trump administration’s sanctions against universities, permit students and academics to speak and protest according to their beliefs, and ban non-campus police from any role in ongoing protests.”
US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib called for an immediate release of Khalil.
“We must be extremely clear: this is an attempt to criminalise political protest and is a direct assault on the freedom of speech of everyone in this country,” said an open letter signed by 13 lawmakers, including Tlaib.
“Khalil’s arrest is an act of anti-Palestinian racism intended to silence the Palestine solidarity movement in this country, but this lawless abuse of power and political repression is a threat to all Americans.”