Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student who served as lead negotiator for the student group behind the illegal encampments that plagued campus last spring, is in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after the Trump administration revoked his visa, a senior State Department official confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon.
Khalil's attorney said federal immigration authorities detained Khalil on Saturday night at his university-owned apartment in execution of a State Department order to revoke his student visa. A public ICE database lists Khalil as being held in an Elizabeth, N.J., detention center. A senior State Department official confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed the visa revocation.
"This should serve as a warning to foreign students on temporary status in America—under this administration, if you support terror groups, we will deport you," the official told the Free Beacon. It was an apparent reference to a statement from the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) group Khalil belongs to that endorsed Hamas's "armed resistance."
"We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance," the group wrote on Oct. 8. One day earlier, on the anniversary of Hamas's Oct. 7 , 2023, attack on Israel, CUAD lauded the "Al-Aqsa Flood"—Hamas's name for the terror spree—as a "moral, military and political victory."
"The Palestinian resistance is moving their struggle to a new phase of escalation and it is our duty to meet them there. It is our duty to fight for our freedom!"
Khalil was one of the CUAD student leaders who organized the encampments. He led negotiations with the school as they unfolded, demanding divestment from Israel. Khalil pledged further unrest in the buildup to the fall semester, telling the Hill he would continue to push Columbia to divest from Israel by "any available means necessary." Video footage placed him at a more recent illegal protest at Barnard College that took place on Wednesday.
"And we’ve been working all this summer on our plans, on what’s next to pressure Columbia to listen to the students and to decide to be on the right side of history," Khalil said in August. "We’re considering a wide range of actions throughout the semester, encampments and protests and all of that. But for us, encampment is now our new base."
Khalil has openly discussed his student visa status and his upbringing in Syria, including in an interview with Qatar-funded network Al Jazeera. His attorney told the Associated Press that Khalil had since received a green card. Immigration enforcement officials told the attorney the State Department had revoked that as well.
Columbia issued a statement on Sunday that did not directly address Khalil's detention and instead referenced "reports of ICE around campus."
"Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings," the statement read. "Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community."
The news comes amid a flurry of actions from the Trump administration to deport pro-Hamas visa holders, something President Donald Trump promised to do on the campaign trail. In his second week in office, Trump signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to investigate and deport anti-Semitic resident aliens, including those on visas, who have violated U.S. law.
The State Department revoked the visa of a university student for the first time on Thursday, citing the individual’s prior involvement in criminal activity tied to Hamas-supporting campus disruptions. Khalil's arrest came two days later and does not come as a surprise—the encampment negotiator was included on a shortlist of pro-Hamas student visa holders that anti-Semitism watchdog group Betar USA presented to the administration, the Free Beacon reported last month.
On Friday, meanwhile, Trump’s newly formed task force to combat anti-Semitism announced it had revoked approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia over its failure to curb anti-Semitism in the aftermath of Oct. 7. Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, issued a statement that acknowledged Columbia’s "failures and shortcomings" and pledged to work with Trump administration officials "to address their legitimate concerns."
"Columbia is taking the government’s action very seriously. I want to assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns," Armstrong wrote. "To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combatting antisemitism on our campus."
Two days earlier, Columbia student radicals stormed a Barnard College campus building for the second time in a week. During the first storming, they sent a security guard to the hospital and caused $30,000 in damages. On the second occasion, the agitators distributed Hamas propaganda meant to justify Oct. 7. Within hours of the Trump administration’s funding cut announcement, Columbia suspended its four students who had been arrested while clashing with police during the more recent incident.
The administration appears likely to pull more taxpayer funds from Columbia. The anti-Semitism task force is actively probing $5 billion worth of Columbia’s grants and contracts over the Ivy League institution’s "apparent failure" to protect Jewish students.
Update 5:05 p.m.: This piece has been updated with additional information.