The student who has been leading Columbia University's anti-Israel protests was arrested by ICE agents Saturday night in his university-owned apartment a few blocks from the campus, his lawyers told the New York Post.
Mahmoud Khalil already has his graduate degree from Columbia, having graduated in December, but he was allowed to remain on campus according to the school's policies.
His undergraduate degree is from Beirut. He was responsible for Palestinian activism at Columbia and Barnard College, reportedly seeking the “total eradication of Western civilization.”
Video and audio from X depicted Khalil holding a bullhorn during last week’s takeover of the Milstein Library at Barnard College.
The protest included propaganda flyers from the Hamas Media Office and reportedly justified the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that resulted in 1,200 casualties, over 250 hostages, and many women raped and others injured.
“These protesters were handing out materials from terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah. Every American citizen should be concerned when students are encouraging terrorist activities on US soil regardless of their nationality," Ari Shrage, head of Columbia’s Jewish Alumni Association, told the Post about the protest.
While the ICE agents were arresting Khalil, Columbia put out a statement saying that the agents were on campus and said it would not cooperate with them except when required by law.
“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 in part.
“Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community," it continued.
Of course, responses like the one at Columbia are exactly why these protests continue to go on for weeks on end and why they haven't stopped in the almost 18 months since the attack.
When colleges express solidarity with the protesters and give them a slap on the wrist rather than any meaningful consequence for their actions, of course they are going to keep right on doing what they please.
It's now hateful on many campuses to call a person by their biologically correct but not preferred pronouns, but it's not hateful to say that Hamas was justified to attack Israel, kill 1,200 people, rape hundreds of women, and take 250-plus hostages.
It seems to me like these colleges should face some kind of consequences for the way they've screwed up the minds of thousands of college students at a formative time in their lives when they don't know enough about reality yet to know they're being fed lies.
It's good to see Trump and ICE taking on these protesters and their leadership and finding ways to stop them, even if they have to deport them.
