Student activist detained in the US

[Odras]

I find this a bit chilling. Peaceful protest should always be protected.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/ice-arrests-palestinian-activist-green-card-columbia-university/story?id=119616144

Why was he arrested?
On social media, Donald Trump declared that the arrest was part of his promised campaign to deport international students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. The administration broadly perceives pro-Palestinian protesters to be antisemitic Hamas sympathizers. Trump has already promised that Khalil’s would be the “first arrest of many to come”.

I think that's such a dangerous precedent.

Trump is ensuring that in people minds there are no innocent Palestinians which makes it easier to ethnically cleanse and murder them. Anyone who protests against Israel is now automatically labelled a Hamas sympathiser and a terrorist. This gives Israel a carte Blanche to behave in any manner they wish. It gives them renewed sense of strength which means they will not agree to any ceasefire deal because why would they when they hold the cards to such a powerful nation.

Columbia’s own task force investigating the protests found widespread harassment of Jewish students and antisemitism.

https://president.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/Announcements/Report-2-Task-Force-on-Antisemitism.pdf

@Odras I’m a naturalized citizen so thought I’d share my feelings on the subject-note that this is just my personal opinion, not referring to the legal position.

When I was a permanent resident, I considered myself a guest in the country, because green cards have to be renewed every 10 years so even though it says “permanent,” you’re actually not. You can be deported for a number of reasons and I was always aware of that. I also felt that as a non-citizen and a guest, it wasn’t my place to protest about the country’s laws and actions.

Now that I’m a citizen who has made a commitment to the country and I can vote, I feel that I do have the right to protest. Even naturalized citizens can be stripped of their citizenship though under certain conditions.

So my feelings are complicated. I completely agree that his case needs to be decided by the courts in accordance with the existing immigration laws, not by a politician. But, I also think that he knew that he was potentially risking his residency and was willing to take that risk. I hope that he gets a proper hearing and for his family’s sake, is deemed not to have broken existing immigration laws.

And that should be dealt with accordingly but the two posts are not connected in any way.

It is not anti semitic to hold Israel to the same standards as every other country but what is currently happening is they are not allowed to be criticised in any way or else the law will be brought down on them severely.

Why can people not protest against their actions in Palestine because there could not be one poster here who would agree that they have been completely moral and their actions have been above reproach in the last 18 months.

@BruFord thanks for your view. I understand but legally he could protest. I think we need to look at the motivations of the Trump administration here. It’s not really a Palestinian/israel issue for me at all. It’s about Trump, this apparent defender of free speech shutting down speech that doesn’t suit his agenda.

i think it should be seen in the same vein as his recent attacks on the press. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/united-states/article/2025/03/15/trump-freezes-us-funded-media-outlets-goodbye-white-house-says_6739195_133.html

We certainly live in worrying times.

@Odras I think he’s probably going to be fine. I was just pointing out that getting involved in protests is more risky for non-citizens, especially if the police become involved as they did on the Columbia campus.

Trump has now issued an executive order invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act allowing the govt to deport without due process. Sounds like the courts are trying to stop this happening but who knows how successful they’ll be long term.

I agree that this is not really about Palestine/ Israel but about freedom of speech/ freedom to protest.
I can see why you find it worrying. Democracy means tolerating views we disagree with. That is a very important principle.

But people are not free to say anything they want. They can’t promote ideas that undermine or threaten democracy/ peace / racial harmony.
I hope the legal process works fairly and openly in this case

It's clearly in the statutes for green card holders that they cant promote terrorist organizations. If this person was doing that then he is in violation of the terms of his immigration status and can be deported. Its not about free speech, or protesting, but distributing hamas materials. these rules have always been in place for non citizens. Its not that hard to understand, don't go to a foreign country and support a proscribed terrorist group. If he hasn't been doing that and was just innocently protesting then it shouldn't be hard to win the case. Likewise, if the government have proof that he was promoting hamas then he has violated the terms of his green card and can be deported. Either way he is entitled to due process and a fair hearing

This.

Either way he is entitled to due process and a fair hearing

But Trump is trying to get the Illegal Aliens Act reinstated which will take away hearings and due process. It’s the absolute tearing up of legal process and general dictator tendencies which concerns me,

Don’t pretend this is a usual situation or something that always happens.

This is definitely one to watch. Even if it doesn’t succeed in the courts, which it probably won’t. It will still have an impact that he was detained in the first place.

"Support" has traditionally been used to mean material support, not merely speech. And even then it's questionable what he said. But read the news: they aren't using that as their rationale. They're saying his presence is contrary to American foreign policy interests.

Well it seems like court orders don’t seem to mean anything in our new reality.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/trump-administration-deportations-alien-enemies-act/index.html

Yep. And Musk has said he wants the judge who made the court order impeached! It’s actually unbelievable. Musk and Trump are blatantly ignoring the courts and doing what they want. I really hope they both get impeached and jailed.

Here's a shocker. He seems to have lied on his green card application.

Trump administration claims Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil misrepresented information on green card application

He can be deported on this basis alone.

@MissConductUS Oh heck, I hope for his family’s sake that this isn’t true.

Pretty stupid thing to do.if correct.

"According to recent court filings, President Donald Trump's administration said Khalil failed to disclose when applying for his green card last year that his employment by the Syria Office at the British Embassy in Beirut went "beyond 2022" and that he was a "political affairs officer" for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees from June to November 2023."

Mmm, if true it's very bad, but you'll forgive me for being suspicious of them suddenly coming out with this.

ICE also tried to arrest a Columbia student who has lived here since she was 7; they had a warrant but couldn't find her. All she's accused of is participating in protests; she held no leadership roles and was not arrested. She sued and a judge ruled today she can't be detained.

Mmm, if true it's very bad, but you'll forgive me for being suspicious of them suddenly coming out with this.

They'll have his original green card application on file. He surely has a copy as well. Are you suggesting both have been replaced with forgeries?

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/27/us/rumeysa-ozturk-detained-what-we-know/index.html

Has anyone heard about this? Is there more to the story, the accusation is the same as Khalil but no evidence has been given yet.

She was a co author of a piece in a student newspaper criticizing the universities response to protests criticizing investing in Israel which appears to the be the reason she has been singled out .

Either way the video of her arrest is shocking she was handcuffed on the street by plain clothes ICE officers which is terrifying as they did not show their badges until after she was arrested.

I’m not really grasping the significance of why a job with the UN or with a British embassy would be a bad thing? Why would someone purposely change the dates or omit these jobs?

I read about Osturk the other day. It’s all very worrying. Like most of the actions of the Trump administration. I keep saying I’m just going to stop reading the news.

Me neither @odras.

Just watched a conference with Marc Rubio about Rumeysa. His answer to the question about why her visa was revoked while talking around the issue basically confirmed it is based on her article.

He also threatened more visas being revoked.

It appears that Israel is now above any criticism in the US which is very scary.

In the case of UNRAW, the organization was found to have extensive ties to Hamas, and some of it’s staff participated in the October 7th attacks.

Intelligence Reveals Details of U.N. Agency Staff’s Links to Oct. 7 Attack Around 10% of Palestinian aid agency’s 12,000 staff in Gaza have links to militants, according to intelligence dossier

In regards to the other omission, the green card application is required to be both correct and complete. I’ve no idea why he didn’t include the other job, but he should have.