Columbia Campus Protest Leader Khalil Now Faces Deportation to Algeria, Trump Official Says
22nd January 2026
Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and Palestinian protest organizer whose immigration arrest last year made national headlines, will be re-arrested and deported to Algeria, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on Newsnation.
Khalil, a Syrian-born Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, was arrested by federal immigration officers last March after Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed his presence would have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.
In a statement, Khalil’s legal team disputed whether he could be legally detained or deported while the appeals process has not concluded. In the statement, they said the government’s actions “reinforce its disdain for the First Amendment rights of people engaged in peaceful protest.”
The 30-year-old former student, who is a lawful permanent U.S. resident, was the first of several immigrant university students at Columbia and across the country to be targeted for deportation over their pro-Palestinian activism.