US immigration arrests Palestinian activist, revokes residency: Lawyer
Mahmoud Khalil, who was one of the leaders of Columbia Universityโs pro-Palestinian student campus protest movement, was arrested on Saturday night by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, his lawyer told the Associated Press.
The agents said they were acting on orders from the State Department to revoke Khalilโs student visa when they detained him in New York City. When Khalilโs lawyer, Amy Greer, told them that he was a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said the card was also being revoked.
Greer said that Khalilโs wife โ who is eight months pregnant โ was not told why the activist was being detained. He has been transferred to an ICE facility in New Jersey.
โWe have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained,โ Greer said. โThis is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats.โ
The Trump administration has threatened to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests in the US, warning that studentsโ visas would be revoked if the students were deemed to be supporting Hamas. The State Department said on Thursday that it had revoked the visa of one student protester the previous day for โcriminal behaviorโ.
The US government has also announced that it would cut $400m in grants and contracts to Columbia University, accusing the elite educational institute of failing to crack down on anti-Semitism. Pro-Israel voices have consistently attempted to portray pro-Palestinian protests as anti-Jewish, despite the large presence of Jewish students among the protesters.
#GhostPrincess
Mahmoud Khalil, who was one of the leaders of Columbia Universityโs pro-Palestinian student campus protest movement, was arrested on Saturday night by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, his lawyer told the Associated Press.
The agents said they were acting on orders from the State Department to revoke Khalilโs student visa when they detained him in New York City. When Khalilโs lawyer, Amy Greer, told them that he was a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said the card was also being revoked.
Greer said that Khalilโs wife โ who is eight months pregnant โ was not told why the activist was being detained. He has been transferred to an ICE facility in New Jersey.
โWe have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained,โ Greer said. โThis is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats.โ
The Trump administration has threatened to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests in the US, warning that studentsโ visas would be revoked if the students were deemed to be supporting Hamas. The State Department said on Thursday that it had revoked the visa of one student protester the previous day for โcriminal behaviorโ.
The US government has also announced that it would cut $400m in grants and contracts to Columbia University, accusing the elite educational institute of failing to crack down on anti-Semitism. Pro-Israel voices have consistently attempted to portray pro-Palestinian protests as anti-Jewish, despite the large presence of Jewish students among the protesters.
#GhostPrincess