Fear on Columbia campus as Trump arrests pupil for deportation over Gaza protests | EUROtoday

International college students at Columbia University stated they have been afraid to depart their dormitories after immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian graduate pupil for his involvement in protests towards the Gaza warfare.

Agents with the Department of Homeland Security detained Mahmoud Khalil, who graduated in December from the college’s School of International and Public Affairs, at his university-owned residence on Saturday night.

Khalil has not been charged with any crime, however President Donald Trump stated that his presence within the U.S. was “contrary to national and foreign policy interests.”

Federal immigration authorities additionally reportedly visited one other worldwide pupil on the college over the weekend and tried to take her into custody, however have been denied entry to her house.

“Given the magnitude of statements made by the president and his administration, I feel I am not safe knowing they’re around campus,” one worldwide pupil informed The Independent.

“I’ve heard and read a lot about indiscriminate arrests of people post 9/11 so I am afraid they may do the same thing, especially after saying Mahmoud’s arrest is not the first nor the last,” they added.

Internal message boards have been flooded with posts from worldwide Columbia college students on Monday expressing fears over additional arrests.

Ava Lyon-Sereno, a third-year Columbia pupil who was concerned within the anti-Gaza warfare protests at Columbia final summer season, stated the temper on campus was “tense and fearful.”

“International students that haven’t been involved in protests at all are scared and anxious, and the university isn’t taking any sort of hard stance about not cooperating with ICE,” she informed The Independentreferring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“People are really afraid that the university won’t protect them, especially when you consider how much weaker their response to the Trump administration and ICE is now versus compared to the last time he was president,” she added.

Other college students expressed anger on the college for failing to guard their friends from immigration authorities.

Khalil’s arrest comes simply days after Columbia issued new guidelines for the way college students and college employees ought to reply to ICE brokers making an attempt to entry college property. On Thursday, the college issued a memo that stated ICE brokers ought to be allowed to enter college property with no warrant in “exigent circumstances,” with out elaborating.

“We feel that the university is not keeping us safe. The campus is no longer just hostile, it’s escalated to one that’s not conducive to learning,” stated Bonnie, a Columbia pupil who gave solely her first identify, as a result of she feared repercussions.

Bonnie famous that over 50 p.c of scholars at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, the place Khalil studied, are from different international locations.

“So you have international students wondering, can I come to school? Can I leave my apartment complex? There is fear even about coming to class,” she added.

Carly, one other pupil who gave solely her first identify, stated worldwide college students have been already feeling unsafe earlier than this arrest.

“This incident was essentially the icing on the cake of this university blatantly disregarding international students,” she charged. “I think it’s very important to acknowledge that Mahmoud’s detainment happened on university property. This was in graduate student housing, so it’s impossible to claim Columbia University had no hand in it,” she added.

Columbia University didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The arrest is the primary publicly recognized effort by Donald Trump’s administration to deport a world pupil for collaborating in protests towards the Gaza warfare, a promise he made throughout his marketing campaign.

It comes simply days after the Trump administration stated it had canceled some $400 million in federal funding and grants awarded to Columbia University attributable to antisemitic harassment “on and near” the campus.

President Trump celebrated the arrest in a social media put up on Monday.

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”

“We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again,” he added.

The Trump administration has offered no proof that Khalil supported Hamas or engaged in antisemitism. Some 48 hours after his arrest, neither the Trump administration or the DHS have revealed the legislation below which Khalil was arrested.

Khalil is a everlasting authorized resident and his spouse, who’s eight months pregnant, is a U.S. citizen. DHS stated he had been arrested as a result of he had “led activities aligned to Hamas,” with out elaborating.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared a information report of Khalil’s arrest on social media on Sunday, including the remark: “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

The New York Civil Liberties Union referred to as the arrest “a frightening escalation of Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestine speech, and an aggressive abuse of immigration law.”

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez additionally spoke out towards the transfer.

“If the federal government can disappear a legal US permanent resident without reason or warrant, then they can disappear US citizens too,” she wrote on X, previously Twitter.

“Anyone – left, right, or center – who has highlighted the importance of constitutional rights + free speech should be sounding the alarm now.”

Khalil was a key determine within the protests that broke out at Columbia in response to Israel’s warfare in Gaza, which unfold to different college campuses throughout the nation.

Students arrange a tent encampment on the campus garden and occupied a tutorial constructing for a number of hours earlier than Columbia referred to as in police to take away them. Khalil acted as a negotiator for the occupying college students, however didn’t enter the constructing himself.

The protesters referred to as for Columbia to finish investments in weapons producers and firms that assist Israel’s authorities and navy in response to the devastating warfare within the Gaza Strip, sparked by a shock Hamas assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Gaza’s well being ministry says it has confirmed greater than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed, however the true variety of useless is believed to be a lot greater as our bodies are left undiscovered beneath the rubble.

Some Jewish and Israeli college students stated they felt intimidated by the protests final summer season, whereas Trump and Republicans have referred to as for stronger motion to cease them.

Upon taking workplace for his second time period, Trump signed an government order that promised to make use of “all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”

Lyon-Sereno, who’s Jewish, stated the arrest has troubling implications at no cost speech.

“The situation with Mahmoud is so terrifying because it shows the DHS and ICE are willing to take whatever extralegal steps they want to and retroactively approve them to stamp out dissent,” she stated.

“If they can essentially kidnap a legal resident, where does it stop?”