U.S. immigration agents arrested a Palestinian student and permanent resident who led the pro-Palestinian encampment protest at Columbia University last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University until this past December, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 9, DHS said in a statement on social media platform X.
DHS stated that his arrest follows President Donald Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism in colleges and universities, alleging that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas,” a U.S.-designated terrorist group that launched a large-scale attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and triggered Israeli forces to launch offensive operations in Gaza….