What to know about Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia protester arrested by ICE and facing deportation

Demonstrators attend a protest at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), following the arrest by U.S. immigration agents of Palestinian student protester Mahmoud Khalil, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. March 11, 2025. (REUTERS)
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Demonstrators attend a protest at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), following the arrest by U.S. immigration agents of Palestinian student protester Mahmoud Khalil, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. March 11, 2025. (REUTERS)
What to know about Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia protester arrested by ICE and facing deportation
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Protestors march to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil on March 11, 2025 in New York City. (AFP)
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Updated 12 March 2025
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What to know about Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia protester arrested by ICE and facing deportation

What to know about Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia protester arrested by ICE and facing deportation
  • Khalil was one of the most visible activists in the protests last spring at Columbia, which also happened on other college campuses around the world
  • A federal judge in Manhattan ordered the government to not deport Khalil until the court has a chance to review the case

NEW YORK: A Palestinian activist who helped lead student protests at Columbia University faces deportation after being arrested over the weekend by federal immigration officials.
Trump has warned that the apprehension of Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident, represents the “first arrest of many” as his administration cracks down on campus opposition to the war in Gaza. But a federal judge temporarily blocked the 30-year old’s expulsion from the country.
Here’s what you need to know:
What happened?
Khalil was detained Saturday night as he and his wife were returning to their Columbia University-owned apartment in upper Manhattan by officials from the US Department of Homeland Security.
The agents told the couple that Khalil was being detained because his student visa had been revoked.
When his wife provided documents proving he was a green card holder, the agents said that was also being revoked and took him away in handcuffs, according to a lawsuit Khalil’s attorneys filed challenging his detention.
Why is he facing deportation?
The Department of Homeland Security, confirming his arrest Saturday, accused Khalil of leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
The White House, elaborating more on its position Tuesday, claimed Khalil organized protests where pro-Hamas propaganda was distributed.
“This administration is not going to tolerate individuals having the privilege of studying in our country and then siding with pro-terrorist organizations that have killed Americans,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary.
Khalil’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to the White House’s latest claims.
Who is Mahmoud Khalil?
Khalil was one of the most visible activists in the protests last spring at Columbia, which also happened on other college campuses around the world.
He served as a student negotiator — a role that had him speaking frequently with university officials and the press.
More recently, he was among the pro-Palestinian activists investigated by a new disciplinary body at Columbia University focused on harassment and discrimination complaints.
Khalil completed his master’s degree in public administration at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in December.
What’s his legal status?
Khalil was born and raised in Syria after his Palestinian grandparents were removed from their homeland, according to his lawsuit.
He came to the US on a student visa in 2022 to pursue his graduate studies at Columbia.
Khalil and his wife, who is a US citizen, then married in 2023. He became a legal permanent resident — also known as a green card holder — last year.
Can the government deport green card holders?
Short answer: yes. Green card holders can be deported, but the government has the burden to prove the person is deportable.
Grounds for deportation can range from being convicted of a range of crimes, from murder, assault and burglary to tax evasion, domestic violence and illegal firearms possession, according to Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law expert and retired Cornell Law School professor.
But a legal permanent resident can also be expelled for providing material support to a terrorist group, in which case the government doesn’t need a criminal conviction to bring deportation charges, he said.
“Material support for immigration purposes is much broader than the criminal definition of the term,” Yale-Loehr explained. “For example, people have been deported for simply providing a cup of water or bowl of rice to guerrilla groups, even under duress.”
Where is Khalil?
Khalil is being held at a federal immigration detention facility in a central Louisiana town roughly 170 miles (274 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans.
The Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, which is a low-slung complex ringed by barbed wire fences, can hold about 1,160 detainees.
Louisiana became a hub for immigrant detention during the first Trump administration and has nine centers, most of them run by private contractors.
Critics say the isolated complexes cut prisoners off from easy access to attorneys and family.
“The intent is to kind of break the morale, the spirits, of those that are held at these facilities,” Yasmine Taeb, the legislative and political director for the Muslim activist group MPower Change, told reporters Tuesday.
What’s next?
Khalil is expected to make an initial appearance before an immigration court but is unclear when — it could happen anywhere from 10 days to a month, experts told the AP .
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Manhattan ordered the government to not deport Khalil until the court has a chance to review the case. A hearing was tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.
Khalil’s lawyers contend that he has a right to due process as a legal permanent resident and that the government is “engaging in blatant efforts to target and chill” Khalil’s free speech and to “discriminate against particular viewpoints,” in violation of the First Amendment.
They’ve also petitioned the court to have him returned to New York, as his wife is eight months pregnant.
“For everyone reading this, I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby,” his wife, who has not been named, wrote in a statement provided by his lawyers. “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.”
 

 


Columbia grad student’s detention will stretch on as lawyers spar over Trump’s plan to deport him

Columbia grad student’s detention will stretch on as lawyers spar over Trump’s plan to deport him
Updated 7 sec ago
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Columbia grad student’s detention will stretch on as lawyers spar over Trump’s plan to deport him

Columbia grad student’s detention will stretch on as lawyers spar over Trump’s plan to deport him
After Khalil’s Manhattan arrest, Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers a legal challenge brought by his lawyers
One of Khalil’s lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, told the judge that Khalil was “identified, targeted and detained” because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights and his protected speech

NEW YORK: Mahmoud Khalil will remain detained in Louisiana until at least next week following an initial court hearing in New York on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s plans to deport the Columbia University graduate student for his role in campus protests against Israel.
The brief hearing, which focused on thorny jurisdictional issues, drew hundreds of demonstrators to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan to denounce the Saturday arrest of Khalil, a permanent US resident who is married to an American citizen. Khalil, 30, didn’t attend — after initially being held in New Jersey, he was moved to an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
After Khalil’s Manhattan arrest, Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers a legal challenge brought by his lawyers, who want Khalil returned to New York and released under supervision.
During Wednesday’s hearing, attorney Brandon Waterman argued on behalf of the Justice Department that the venue for the deportation fight should be moved from New York City to Louisiana or New Jersey because those are the locations where Khalil has been held.
One of Khalil’s lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, told the judge that Khalil was “identified, targeted and detained” because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights and his protected speech. He said Khalil has no criminal convictions, but “for some reason, is being detained.”
Kassem also told Furman that Khalil’s legal team hasn’t been able to have a single attorney-client-protected phone call with him.
Furman ordered that the lawyers be allowed to speak with him by phone at least once on Wednesday and Thursday. Calling the legal issues “important and weighty,” the judge also directed the two sides to submit a joint letter on Friday describing when they propose to submit written arguments over the legal issues raised by Khalil’s detention.
Kassem said Khalil’s lawyers would update their lawsuit on Thursday.
Khalil’s arrest has sparked protests in New York and other US cities. Actor Susan Sarandon emerged from the courthouse and told reporters that “no matter where you stand on genocide, freedom of speech ... is a right that we all have.” She added: ”And this is a turning point in the history and the freedom of this country.”
Some of Khalil’s supporters, many of them wearing a keffiyeh and mask, attended the hearing. Hundreds more demonstrated outside the courthouse, beating drums, waving Palestinian flags and chanting for Khalil’s release. The raucous crowd grew quiet, though, to hear Kassem speak.
“As we tried to make clear in court today, what happened to Mahmoud Khalil is nothing short of extraordinary and shocking and outrageous,” Kassem told the crowd. “It should outrage anybody who believes that speech should be free in the United States of America.”
Kassem said the legal grounds cited by the government to detain Khalil were “vague” and “rarely used,” masking the true intent: “retaliation and punishment for the exercise of free speech.”
Columbia became the center of a US pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across college campuses nationwide last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.
Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.
President Donald Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as the first “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport students he described as engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
During a stopover in Ireland while headed from Saudi Arabia to a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Canada, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Khalil’s case is “not about free speech.”
“This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card,” Rubio said.
Khalil, who acted as a spokesperson for Columbia protesters, hasn’t been charged with a crime. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the administration moved to deport him under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to deport a noncitizen on foreign policy grounds.
Civil rights groups and Khalil’s attorneys say the government is unconstitutionally using its immigration control powers to stop him from speaking out.
US Jewish groups and leaders and organizations have been divided in their response to Khalili’s detention.
Among those welcoming the move was the Anti-Defamation League, which said it hopes it serves as a “deterrent.”
“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism — and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions,” the ADL said on social media.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs, decried Khalil’s detention.
The Trump administration “is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy: from gutting education funding to deporting students to attacking diversity, equity, & inclusion,” she wrote on Bluesky. “As we’ve repeatedly said: this makes Jews — & so many others — less safe.”

Ukraine says Russia blew up teens recruited to make bombs

Ukraine says Russia blew up teens recruited to make bombs
Updated 28 min 42 sec ago
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Ukraine says Russia blew up teens recruited to make bombs

Ukraine says Russia blew up teens recruited to make bombs
  • Ukraine and Russia frequently accuse each other of recruiting civilians to carry out sabotage attacks in their local areas
  • Prosecutors said the boys were planning to plant the device near the city’s railway station

KYIV: Ukraine’s security service on Wednesday accused Russia of blowing up two teenage boys it had recruited to make bombs and plant them near a Ukrainian railway station.
Ukraine and Russia frequently accuse each other of recruiting civilians to carry out sabotage attacks in their local areas, often on railway infrastructure, offering financial incentives and grooming them via social media.
An explosion Tuesday evening in the center of the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk killed a 17-year-old boy on the spot and seriously injured a 15-year-old boy, the SBU security service wrote on Telegram.
In a statement it said “the Russian security service blew up two of their own agents” by remotely triggering an improvised explosive device they were carrying.
Prosecutors said the boys were planning to plant the device near the city’s railway station.
The SBU said Russia had recruited the local teens through Telegram channels, calling them college students “in search of ‘easy money’.”
A Russian handler rented an apartment where the teens learnt bomb-making and fashioned two improvised devices disguised as thermos flasks, packing them with metal nuts to maximize injuries, the SBU said.
As the boys walked together, carrying one of the devices in a package, Russian security services remotely tracking them on GPS “activated the improvised explosive device,” the Ukrainian agency said.
Two bystanders suffered shrapnel wounds while another explosive device left in the rented apartment was also remotely triggered minutes later, prosecutors said, posting a picture of firefighters tackling a blaze.
The Ivano-Frankivsk region, near the border with Poland, has had critical infrastructure damaged by Russian bombing.
“All the circumstances of the crime are currently being established,” prosecutors said.
The SBU said the 15-year-old survivor would be classed as a suspect and risked charges of aiding a “terrorist act” and illegally making explosives, punishable by up to a life sentence.


ICC takes custody of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

ICC takes custody of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte
Updated 41 min 33 sec ago
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ICC takes custody of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

ICC takes custody of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte
  • The court said in a statement that “as a precautionary measure medical assistance” was made available at the airport for Duterte
  • If his case goes to trial and he is convicted, the 79-year-old Duterte could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court said Wednesday that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been surrendered to its custody, to face allegations of crimes against humanity stemming from deadly anti-drug crackdowns during his time in office.
The court said in a statement that “as a precautionary measure medical assistance” was made available at the airport for Duterte, in line with standard procedures when a suspect arrives.
Rights groups and families of victims have hailed Duterte’s arrest Tuesday in Manila on an ICC warrant, which was announced by current Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.
Within days, Duterte will face an initial appearance where the court will confirm his identity, check that he understands the charges against him and set a date for a hearing to assess if prosecutors have sufficient evidence to send him to a full trial.
If his case goes to trial and he is convicted, the 79-year-old Duterte could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The small jet taxied into a hangar where two buses were waiting. An ambulance also drove close to the hangar, and medics wheeled a gurney inside. There was no immediate sign of Duterte. A police helicopter hovered close to the airport as the plane remained in the hangar, largely obscured from view by the buses and two fuel tanker trucks.
ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah confirmed that Duterte was on the plane, which made a stopover in Dubai during its flight from Manila.
Duterte’s arrest was announced Tuesday by current Marcos, who said the former leader was arrested when he returned from a trip to Hong Kong and that he was sent aboard a plane to the ICC.
Grieving families are hopeful
“This is a monumental and long-overdue step for justice for thousands of victims and their families,” said Jerrie Abella of Amnesty International.
“It is therefore a hopeful sign for them, as well, in the Philippines and beyond, as it shows that suspected perpetrators of the worst crimes, including government leaders, will face justice wherever they are in the world,” Abella added.
Emily Soriano, the mother of a victim of the crackdowns, said she wanted more officials to face justice.
“Duterte is lucky he has due process, but our children who were killed did not have due process,” she said.
While Duterte’s plane was in the air, grieving relatives gathered in the Philippines to mourn his alleged victims, carrying the urns of their loved ones. “We are happy and we feel relieved,” said 55-year-old Melinda Abion Lafuente, mother of 22-year-old Angelo Lafuente, who she says was tortured and killed in 2016.
Duterte’s supporters, however, criticized his arrest as illegal and sought to have him returned home. Small groups of Duterte supporters and people who backed his arrest demonstrated on Wednesday outside the court before his arrival.
ICC investigation
The ICC opened an inquiry in 2021 into mass killings linked to the so-called war on drugs overseen by Duterte when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president.
Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported and up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.
ICC judges who looked at prosecution evidence supporting their request for his arrest found “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is individually responsible for the crime against humanity of murder” as an “indirect co-perpetrator for having allegedly overseen the killings when he was mayor of Davao and later president of the Philippines,” according to his warrant.
What happens next?
Duterte could challenge the court’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of the case. While the Philippines is no longer a member of the ICC, the alleged crimes happened before Manila withdrew from the court.
That process will likely take months and if the case progresses to trial it could take years. Duterte will be able to apply for provisional release from the court’s detention center while he waits, though it’s up to judges to decide whether to grant such a request.
Duterte’s legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, told reporters in Manila that the Philippine Supreme Court “can compel the government to bring back the person arrested and detained without probable cause and compel the government bring him before the court and to explain to them why they (government) did what they did.”
Marcos said Tuesday that Duterte’s arrest was “proper and correct” and not an act of political persecution.
Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, criticized the Marcos administration for surrendering her father to a foreign court, which she said currently has no jurisdiction in the Philippines.
She left the Philippines on Wednesday to arrange a meeting in The Hague with her detained father and talk to his lawyers, her office told reporters in Manila.
Philippines no longer an ICC member state
Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the ICC, in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability.
The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court’s investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations, arguing that the ICC — a court of last resort — therefore didn’t have jurisdiction.
Appeals judges at the ICC rejected those arguments and ruled in 2023 that the investigation could resume.
The ICC judges who issued the warrant also said that the alleged crimes fall within the court’s jurisdiction. They said Duterte’s arrest was necessary because of what they called the “risk of interference with the investigations and the security of witnesses and victims.”


UK expels Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse in tit-for-tat response to expulsions in Moscow

UK expels Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse in tit-for-tat response to expulsions in Moscow
Updated 9 min 56 sec ago
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UK expels Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse in tit-for-tat response to expulsions in Moscow

UK expels Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse in tit-for-tat response to expulsions in Moscow
  • The Foreign Office said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, to inform him of the expulsions,
  • “We will not tolerate the Kremlin’s relentless and unacceptable campaign of intimidation,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said

LONDON: The UK government said Wednesday it has expelled a Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse in a tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of two British embassy staff in Moscow earlier this week.
The Foreign Office said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, to inform him of the expulsions, following what it described as an “increasingly aggressive and coordinated campaign of harassment against British diplomats” that it said represented an attempt to drive the British embassy in Moscow toward closure.
“We will not tolerate the Kremlin’s relentless and unacceptable campaign of intimidation, nor their repeated attempts to threaten UK security,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on X.


No timeframe for their departure was immediately available.
On Monday, Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in a statement quoted by the state news agency RIA Novosti that the two British diplomats expelled had provided false personal data, while seeking permission to enter the country, and had engaged in alleged intelligence and subversive activities that threatened Russia’s security. It didn’t offer any evidence.
According to the RIA Novosti report, a decision has been made to revoke the diplomats’ accreditations and they have been ordered to leave Russia within two weeks.
“The depths to which Russia sinks can only be met through strength,” the UK’s Foreign Office said. “We have drawn a line under this incident and demand Russia do the same. Any further action taken by Russia will be considered an escalation and responded to accordingly.”
Expulsions of diplomats — both Western envoys working in Russia and Russians in the West — have become increasingly common since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
But embassy expulsions between the UK and Russia have been strained for even longer. Tensions escalated sharply in March 2018 when a former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, were poisoned in the southern England city of Salisbury with the Novichok nerve agent in what British authorities said was a targeted murder attempt coming from Moscow — a charge the Kremlin described as nonsense.


From hospital, Francis marks 12th anniversary as pope

From hospital, Francis marks 12th anniversary as pope
Updated 12 March 2025
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From hospital, Francis marks 12th anniversary as pope

From hospital, Francis marks 12th anniversary as pope
  • The latest bulletins from the Vatican on the 88-year-old pope’s condition have said he is improving and is no longer in immediate danger
  • Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior Vatican official known as close to Francis, called the pope’s anniversary “a reason for gratitude“

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will on Thursday mark the 12th anniversary of his election as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, but he will do so from Rome’s Gemelli hospital where he has been treated for double pneumonia for almost a month.
The latest bulletins from the Vatican on the 88-year-old pope’s condition have said he is improving and is no longer in immediate danger. They have not said when he will be discharged from hospital.
Francis was elected pope by the world’s Roman Catholic cardinals on March 13, 2013. His continued stay in hospital — he was admitted on February 14 — is changing the tenor of how Catholics are celebrating the day.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior Vatican official known as close to Francis, called the pope’s anniversary “a reason for gratitude.”
He said: “This year, his illness makes us especially aware (of the anniversary), especially grateful to God, and redoubling our prayers for his full recovery.”
Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, is the first pope from the Americas.
Elected pontiff at age 76, he moved quickly to make an impact. Over 12 years, he has reorganized the Vatican’s bureaucracy, written four major teaching documents, made 47 foreign trips to more than 65 countries, and created more than 900 saints.
Overall, Francis is widely seen as trying to open the staid global Church to the modern world. Among major decisions, he has allowed priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis and has appointed women to serve as leaders of Vatican offices for the first time. He has also held five major Vatican summits of the world’s Catholic bishops to discuss contested issues such as women’s ordination and changing the Church’s sexual teachings.
David Gibson, a US academic who has followed the papacy closely, said Francis “has come to seem like the indispensable pope” for many Catholics.
“Francis has really reset the expectations for what a pope should be: a pastor who welcomes all and judges no one of good will,” said Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture.
However, the pope’s agenda has upset some Catholics, including a few senior cardinals. They have accused him of watering-down the Church’s teachings on issues such as same-sex marriage and divorce and remarriage, and of focusing excessively on political issues such as climate change. Some survivors of Catholic clergy sexual abuse have said he should do more to protect children in the Church.
While Francis created the first papal commission on the issue, survivors’ groups have questioned its effectiveness and have called on the pope to create firmer zero-tolerance policies.

’WHAT OUR WORLD NEEDS’ Francis is known to work himself to exhaustion and has continued his work from hospital. But as he starts his 13th year as pope, it is unclear if he will be able to keep up his normal pace once he is discharged from hospital. Doctors not involved in his care said he is likely to face a long, fraught road to recovery, given his age and other medical conditions, which have severely limited his mobility. His prolonged public absence has stoked speculation that he could choose to follow his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign the papacy. But his friends and biographers have insisted he has no plans to step down. Much of the pope’s schedule for 2025 centers around the Catholic Holy Year, which has filled his calendar with audiences with groups of pilgrims coming to Rome. The Church expects 32 million pilgrims during the year.
Francis has also been planning at least one foreign trip. He wants to travel to Turkiye for the celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of a major Christian council of bishops in ancient Nicaea, now the modern day town of Iznik.
Vatican officials expect he will push to make the trip, even if it must be postponed beyond May, when it was planned.
Many Catholics are also hoping Francis will continue speaking out on political issues known as important to him, such as the treatment of immigrants, and on global conflicts. Just three days before going into hospital, Francis sharply criticized US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in an unusual open letter to America’s Catholic bishops.
“Pope Francis has offered the world both vision and leadership,” said Marie Dennis, a Vatican adviser and former leader of an international Catholic organization focused on issues of world peace.
“He is exactly what our broken, violent, confused world needs right now,” she said.