BBC News, Washington
The federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s administration attempt to deport the Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by immigration agents during the weekend.
Mr. Khalil, a graduate and permanent American resident of Columbia University, played a key role in last year’s protests in Gaza at the IVy League campus in New York.
The arrest is part of the pledge of President Donald Trump to suppress pro-Palestinian protesters at the college campuses, in what he called “the first arrest of many who come.”
The protesters gathered in New York on Monday afternoon, advocating for the release of Mr. Khalil and condemning the actions of Trump’s administration.
“We are now faced with the terrifying reality that our own student, a member of the Columbia Community, has become a political prisoner here in the United States,” Professor of Columbia University Michael Thaddeus said in a statement.
The judge appointed a hearing on Wednesday, which is expected to be born in Syria, according to court documents, Mr. Khalil will be born.
Mr. Khalli informed Mr. Khali that they had recalled his student visa and a green ticket after taking him to custody on Saturday, his lawyer said.
The Ministry of Internal Security accused the former student of “leading activities aligned with Hamas” but did not provide any details.
BBC asked the Agency for further information on allegations.
Trump has previously stated that foreign students for “terrorist sympathizers” face the deportation. Mr. Khalil is the first known detainee in accordance with this policy.
His lawyer, Amy Greer, condemned custody as “terrible and unforgivable,” calling him part of “open repression of student activism and political speech by the US government.
Mr. Khalil was not charged with any crime.
The ICE agents detained him at his university apartment in Manhattan and in the beginning placed him at the immigration institution in New Jersey before transferring him to the detention center in Jena, Louisiana, according to Ice Records.
His lawyer claims that Ice also threatened to arrest his wife, an American citizen who has been pregnant for eight months. When she tried to visit him in New Jersey, officials told her she was not there.
Columbia University stated that the implementation of the law could go into assets in the campus with a warrant, but denied that the university leadership had called on ICE agents.
On Sunday, State Secretary Marco Rubio confirmed the attitude of the administration, publishing on X: “We will feel visas and/or green tickets to Hamas supporters in America so that they can deport them.”
Trump’s administration announced last week to insert $ 400 million (£ 310m) in Columbia federal scholarships, accusing her of not fighting anti -Semitism at Campus.
Columbia was the epicenter last year by pro-Palestinian student protests across the country against the Gaza war and American support for Israel.
Mr. Khalil was a leading negotiator for Apartheid University of Columbia, when his protesters set up a huge tent camp on the university lawn in protest against the Gaza war.
Later, the BBC said that the University had temporarily suspended him, where he was a graduate student at the School of International and Public Relations.
The Union President for New York Civic Freedom Donna Lieberman called her deportation “Target retaliation and an extreme attack on the first amendment.”
New York State Attorney Letitia James said she was “extremely worried” and supervised the case.
Some Jewish students in Columbia claim that the protest rhetoric sometimes moved the line to anti-Semitism, while others joined in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Carly, a Jewish-American graduate student in Columbia and a friend of Mr. Khalil, told the BBC that the prisoner was “very, very caring soul”.
“He was a very targeted on the net and he just saw that he was so wrong, he is very painful, as someone who knows him on a personal level,” said Carly, who refused to share her last reasons for privacy.
Talking about Fox News, Trump’s border, Emperor Tom Homan claimed that Mr. Khalil had violated the conditions of his visa “by locking buildings and destroying property.”
The Israeli army launched its campaign against Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross -border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which left about 1,200 people of the dead and took hostages 251.
More than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza were killed in the military action of Israel, according to the Ministry of Health in Hamas.
With additional reporting from Nada Tawfik
