Recent Columbia University graduate and Palestinian immigrant Mahmoud Khalil was recently detained by President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security following his work leading the school’s Gaza solidarity encampment.
Khalil is a permanent U.S. resident with a valid green card, and his wife, who is eight months pregnant, is a U.S. citizen.
Though Khalil was not charged with any crimes, the Trump administration attempted to deport him. The deportation was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Monday.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, celebrated the news that a legal resident was detained despite there being no criminal charges.
“Law Enforcement enforcing the rule of law,” she wrote on X.
A protester holds a sign that reads “Release Mahmoud Khalil now” during a demonstration at Columbia University on March 10, 2025.
Meanwhile, the detainment has sparked widespread criticism for its unconstitutionality.
“Violating rule of law, actually. You are shredding the Constitution of the United States to go after political enemies. Seizing a person without reason or warrant and denying them access to their lawyer is un-American and tyrannical. Anyone celebrating this should be ashamed,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wrote on X.
The American Civil Liberties Union released a statement calling the arrest “unprecedented, illegal, and un-American.”
“The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes,” the statement said.
And New York Attorney General Letitia James expressed that she is working with Khalil’s legal team.
"I am extremely concerned about the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, an advocate and legal permanent resident of Palestinian descent. My office is monitoring the situation, and we are in contact with his attorney,” she wrote on Bluesky.
The official Senate Judiciary Democrats Bluesky account shared support for Khalil, too, writing “Free Mahmoud Khalil.”
Progressive Jewish group Bend the Arc also released a statement about Khalil’s detainment, calling it an abduction.
“Columbia grad student and legal permanent resident, Mahmoud Khalil, was just abducted by ICE for exercising his constitutionally protected rights to free speech and assembly. He should be home with his wife who is 8 months pregnant—not missing in ICE detention, unreachable by his lawyers,” it said.
“The White House's authoritarian actions are being falsely done in the name of Jewish safety and preying on legitimate Jewish fear about antisemitism. But this administration, which endangers Jewish life with Nazi salutes and its ties to the white nationalist movement, does not speak for us,” the statement continued.
Similarly, actor and former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon pointed out the unconstitutionality of the detainment of Khalil.
“Neither Trump nor DHS have the power to singlehandedly revoke someone’s green card, especially not for exercising the right to free speech, a right enshrined in the Constitution. DHS must IMMEDIATELY release Mahmoud Khalil!” she wrote on X.
Elora Mukherjee, director of Columbia’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, told The New York Times that revoking someone’s green card is rare and usually the result of a criminal conviction.
But, Mukherjee pointed out, revoking someone’s green card “in retaliation for his public speech; that is prohibited by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
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