The White House on Tuesday defended the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who was involved in campus protests at Columbia University, saying the administration had the authority to revoke his green card under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Secretary of State has the right to revoke green [the] green card or visas who are adversarial to the foreign policy or national security interests of the U.S.A.,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
“This is an individual who organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes, but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda flyers with the logo of Hamas,” she said.
Mr. Kahlil, a Columbia University graduate, was arrested Saturday at his apartment by federal immigration agents who told him that his student visa was being revoked, according to his attorney, Amy Greer. He is being held at an immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
Ms. Greer said ICE agents were told that Mr. Khalil has a green card and is a permanent resident, but he was arrested anyway.
A federal judge on Monday blocked Mr. Khalil from being deported, ruling that he should remain in the U.S. amid legal challenges to his arrest and planned deportation. A detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Rallies are taking place at college campuses across the country demanding the release of Mr. Khalil, whose arrest was the first of many anti-Israel protester arrests, President Trump said on social media.
Ms. Greer said the arrest violates Mr. Khalil’s right to free speech and protest.
“He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment,” she said in a statement. “Tomorrow or thereafter the government might cite the law or process, but the toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson praised the arrest of the activist, saying college campuses have become dangerous for Jewish students and that the “madness has to stop.”
He said Mr. Khalil, leader of last year’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” was “apparently a mastermind” of the protests that saw activists disrupt campus and threaten other students with “physical violence.”
“I’m going to say this clearly: If you’re on a student visa, and you’re in America, and you’re an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, you’re going home,” Mr. Johnson told reporters at a Tuesday briefing. “We’re going to arrest your tail and we’re going to send you home where you belong. And this is just getting started.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, said any campus violations committed by Mr. Khalil should be left to the university disciplinary process.
“DHS must produce facts and evidence of criminal activity,” said Mr. Jeffries in a statement. “Absent evidence of a crime, such as providing material support for a terrorist organization, the actions undertaken by the Trump administration are wildly inconsistent with the United States Constitution.”
Mr. Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian who is married to an American citizen, served as a lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which is not recognized by the university.
Mr. Johnson was part of a contingent of House Republicans that visited Columbia last April at the height of the encampment protest. He met with Jewish students beforehand who were told by the university to avoid coming to campus over fears for their physical safety.
Then-Columbia President Minouche Shafik stepped down last August, and was replaced by Interim President Katrina Armstrong.
“The president has since been removed. And now they’ve got the same problem again, Columbia and other universities. They have to keep control of campus,” Mr. Johnson said. “The first responsibility of an administration is ensuring the safety of the students who are paying tuition, for crying out loud. This madness has to stop. We have to get control of it.”
