STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Trump administration acted against a former student.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Immigration agents have arrested an activist who helped lead pro-Palestinian student protests at Columbia University.
INSKEEP: His name is Mahmoud Khalil. His lawyer tells NPR that officers from ICE - that's Immigration and Customs Enforcement - picked him up at his university apartment. They told him his green card had been revoked - green card. He was a lawful, permanent resident. President Trump had promised to deport students who protested against Israel during the war in Gaza.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Adrian Florido is here with us now. So tell us who Mahmoud Khalil is and what happened to him.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Well, Khalil, A, was one of the Palestinian students who last year negotiated on behalf of the campus protesters, who were pressing Columbia to divest from Israel over the Gaza war. He was outspoken, very involved. He recently graduated. I spoke with his lawyer, and she told me that on Saturday night, Khalil and his wife were arriving at their university apartment and that ICE agents were in the lobby. They told Khalil his student visa had been canceled, but Khalil is not on a visa. He is a legal, permanent resident. When his wife went to get his green card out of the apartment, agents said that it had been revoked.
MARTÍNEZ: Did they give a reason?
FLORIDO: Well, his lawyer, Amy Greer, says she spoke with one of the agents on the phone during the arrest, and he didn't give her a reason.
AMY GREER: And I demanded to see a warrant or have a warrant shown to me or Mr. Khalil before they removed him, and the agent hung up the phone on me.
FLORIDO: And Greer said that she was shocked the government had declared his green card revoked without due process.
GREER: Mr. Khalil was under the impression that - as a lawful, permanent resident, that he had some modicum of protection that may not exist for people who do have student visas or who are undocumented.
FLORIDO: Instead, agents drove Khalil to a detention center, she said, while his pregnant wife, a U.S. citizen, stayed behind.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, what are you learning about what's behind all this, possibly?
FLORIDO: Well, I got a statement last night from DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. She said Khalil had been arrested in support of a recent executive order that President Trump signed on antisemitism. She said Khalil had, quote, "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization." Separately in a post on X, Secretary of State Marco Rubio linked to a news story about Khalil's arrest and wrote that the administration would be revoking the visas or green cards of Hamas supporters so they can be deported.
MARTÍNEZ: Can you give us just maybe a little more context about the government's motives here?
FLORIDO: Well, conservative lawmakers have really tried to label pro-Palestinian protesters as pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist or antisemitic. In late January, President Trump signed an executive order that he said would be used to go after students who participated in, in his words, the pro-jihadist protests. It directed federal agencies to work toward deporting international students who participated. The order cited federal law that allows deporting foreign nationals who express support for terrorism. Students have always rejected, A, the claim that their protests were pro-terrorist or that they supported Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel. They say the protests were for peace in Gaza.
MARTÍNEZ: How are people responding to this arrest?
FLORIDO: Well, student activists are denouncing it as a chilling attempt to use deportation to stifle free speech and to repress pro-Palestinian activism and criticism of Israel. Khalil's attorney, Amy Greer, told me that she's angry the government was attempting to tar Khalil as anything other than the kind and loving person that he is. She has a legal team that is trying to find out where he's being held and that plans to defend him and to ensure that he gets due process.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Adrian Florido. Thanks a lot.
FLORIDO: Thank you, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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