Palestinian Activist Appears In U.S. Court Amid Trump’s Deportation

A Palestinian student activist who the Trump administration has attempted to deport is due to appear at a hearing on the legality of the effort in a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday.

Mahmoud Khalil, a US permanent resident and Columbia University graduate, was a participant in last year’s protest at the college over the war in Gaza.

President Donald Trump said Mr Khalil’s arrest was the first of “many to come” after pledging to crack down on college protesters who he accuses of sympathising with Hamas.

Mr Khalil is a green card holder and is married to an American citizen who is eight-months pregnant. Earlier this week, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s attempt to deport him.

Mr Khalil’s wife, who has not been named, detailed her husband’s arrest in a statement released by their lawyers on Tuesday. She said that the pair were confronted by immigration agents on Saturday when they returned to their apartment from a dinner.

She said the officials did not provide a warrant or a reason for arrest and ended a call to the couple’s lawyers. They then handcuffed Mr Khalil and forced him into an unmarked car.

“Watching this play out in front of me was traumatizing: It felt like a scene from a movie I never signed up to watch,” the woman’s statement said.

Mr Khalil – who was born in Syria to Palestinian refugees – has been in immigration detention since his arrest. He was initially placed in a New Jersey immigration facility before authorities transferred him to a detention centre in Jena, Louisiana, according to records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“US immigration ripped my soul from me when they handcuffed my husband and forced him into an unmarked vehicle. Instead of putting together our nursery and washing baby clothes in anticipation of our first child, I am left sitting in our apartment, wondering when Mahmoud will get a chance to call me from a detention center,” Mr Khalil’s wife said.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said the arrest was part of its effort to fulfil Trump’s executive order that prohibits antisemitism. It accused Mr Khalil of leading “activities aligned to Hamas” – the Islamist group based in Gaza that the US has designated a terrorist organisation – but provided no details.

The BBC has asked the agency for further information on the allegations.
US court temporarily blocks effort to deport Gaza protest leader
Mr Khalil has long maintained that he simply acted as a spokesperson and mediator for the Columbia student protesters.

Critics have accused him of leading Columbia University Apartheid Divest (Cuad) – a student group that demanded the school divest from Israel and called for a ceasefire in Gaza – which the Palestinian activist has denied.

BBC/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma