Trump Moves to Deport Columbia Hamasnik
10th March 2025
Last May, Columbia student activist Mahmoud Khalil said his status as a foreign national made him “nervous” to participate in the encampment that roiled campus.
“Since the beginning, I decided to stay out of the public eye and away from media attention or high-risk activities,” he told Al Jazeera. He apparently did not consider blabbing to Qatar’s media mouthpiece either media attention or a high-risk activity. Oops.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked Khalil’s visa—he is a Syrian national, according to ICE—and sent immigration enforcement officials to detain him. When Khalil’s attorney said Khalil had received a green card, one of the officials told the attorney the State Department had revoked that as well. A senior State Department official told us Rubio pulled both the visa and green card.
The arrest, which came to light on Sunday, is the first high-profile action under Rubio’s “Catch and Revoke” effort targeting foreign Hamasniks causing trouble on college campuses. Khalil became one of the Columbia encampment’s public faces last spring when he led negotiations with administrators and demanded they divest from Israel. Columbia suspended him shortly thereafter before dropping the disciplinary charges. Khalil pledged to secure Israeli divestment by “any available means necessary” and participated in Wednesday’s occupation of the Barnard library.