As hundreds of demonstrators rallied in New York City on Monday to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a federal judge just steps away blocked the Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate's removal from the United States.
U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman said Khalil is to remain in the United States "to preserve the court's jurisdiction" as the court weighs a filing challenging his arrest and planned deportation. A detention hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.
Khalil attended Columbia University and helped organize protests last spring about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Federal immigration agents arrested him Saturday over what officials said was his support for a designated terrorist organization, Hamas.
Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in New York City on Monday to demand his release after President Donald Trump said Khalil's was the "first arrest of many to come."
Khalil's wife, who was not named, said in a statement from his defense counsel Monday night that she is pregnant and urgently wants his freedom so he can be present at the birth.
"I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby," she said. "I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world."
His legal team has said she is eight months pregnant.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Khalil from his university-owned apartment Saturday night after he was told his student visa was being revoked, his attorney said. Attorney Amy Greer added that ICE was informed that Khalil is a permanent resident with a green card but "detained him anyway."
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Khalil was arrested in coordination with ICE and the State Department “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” because he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday on X that the administration would revoke the visas and green cards “of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
Trump said Khalil's arrest was the first of many to come.
"We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it," he said on Truth Social. "Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again."
Trump and his administration did not provide evidence of those allegations against Khalil or any other protesters.
On Monday, Khalil's legal team filed a motion to have him returned to New York City from an immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
"ICE's shell game of transferring him to Louisiana is a blatantly improper but familiar tactic designed to frustrate the New York federal court's jurisdiction, and isolate Mahmoud far from his lawyers, his home, and his local community of support," Greer said in a statement.
His legal team said remarks by Trump, Rubio and Homeland Security paint Khalil as a political target.
"While tomorrow or thereafter the government may cite the law or process, that toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so," the statement reads. "The government’s objective is as transparent as it is unlawful, and our role as Mahmoud’s lawyers is to ensure it does not prevail."
The People’s Forum organized the rally at Federal Plaza in Manhattan on Monday afternoon and has demanded that Khalil be released immediately
"Hands off our students! ICE off our campuses!" the group said on X.
Monday afternoon, protesters filled the commons and quickly amassed into the hundreds, some carrying "Release Mahmoud Khalil" signs as an American Civil Liberties Union protest monitor watched.
New York police officers were quick to line the plaza, establishing boundaries for the event. The office of the police department’s deputy commissioner of public information said details about any possible arrests would be released later Monday night.
Among the protesters were students from area City University of New York campuses, who gathered in front of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Protesters joined to chant “free, free Palestine,” “ICE off our campus now,” “Release Mahmoud Khalil now” and the divisive and controversial “From the river to the sea” slogan.
Susan, 71, a resident from the New York City borough of Brooklyn, who did not give her last name, held a pair of signs that said “Release Mahmoud Khalil.”
She called his arrest an attack on free speech. “It’s getting ridiculous,” she said.
A member of Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish anti-Zionist organization, said from the protest stage that religion was being used to try to justify what’s happening to Palestinians.
“We will fight for our Palestinian brothers and sisters,” she said, adding that the group advised its members not to give their names as a safety precaution.
Speaking from the stage, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York ACLU, demanded that Khalil be released immediately, calling his arrest "a gross violation of his constitutional rights."
Professors at Columbia and Barnard College, which is affiliated with it, organized a news conference after the protest.
Marianne Hirsch, Columbia professor emerita of English and comparative literature, questioned the Trump administration's motive in Khalil's arrest, noting that he participated in protests in support of Palestinian people in Gaza, not in support of Hamas.
"Criticism of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza can't be equated with anti-Jewish sentiment," said Hirsch, who said she was raised by Holocaust survivors. "Pro-Palestinian speech and activism does not mean a lack of safety for Jews anywhere."
Speakers described Khalil as a political prisoner who helped negotiate the conclusion of pro-Palestinian rallies at Columbia, including a campus encampment. Similar protests took place at more than 40 campuses nationwide last spring
The nonprofit organization Action Network launched a petition that said more than 900,000 letters had been sent calling for Khalil's release.
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said the arrest was a "blatantly unconstitutional act."
"America is supposed to be a country of laws, but this act by the DHS challenges that very concept," Awawdeh said in a statement. "DHS must immediately release Khalil, and our local elected officials must intervene in this unlawful and politically motivated detention of a New Yorker."
The New York ACLU said Khalil's detainment was an "extreme attack on his First Amendment rights."
"Ripping a student from their home, challenging their immigration status, and detaining them solely based on political viewpoint will chill student speech and advocacy across campus," it said in a statement. "Political speech should never be a basis for punishment, or lead to deportation."
The Council on American–Islamic Relations said the decision to arrest him was "lawless."
Maryam Alwan, 22, a Columbia student involved in the pro-Palestinian movement on campus, said she has felt intense anxiety since Khalil was arrested. “I didn’t sleep all night,” she said Monday. “It doesn’t really feel real.”
Alwan was born and raised in Virginia, but “I would not be surprised if American citizens were the next targets,” she said.
Alwan was arrested and suspended in April after the university called police officers to clear a sprawling tent encampment. In early January, she was notified that the university’s Office of Institutional Equity was investigating her. The email accused her of having been involved in writing an unsigned op-ed, published in the student newspaper on Oct. 19, calling for divestment from Israel.
The investigators said the op-ed in the Columbia Spectator may have subjected other students to “unwelcome conduct” based on their religion, national origin or military service, among other allegations.
Columbia's Office of Institutional Equity did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Columbia said Sunday in a statement that law enforcement must have judicial warrants to enter nonpublic university areas, including campus buildings.
"Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community," it said.
