Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a green card holder, Mahmoud Khalil (30), in Manhattan on March 9, 2025, in violation of the First Amendment.
He is the first known person detained under President Trump’s order targeting student protests.
What to Know About Khalil and His Arrest
Khalil was an organizer and the lead negotiator of a large pro-Palestine protest last year at Columbia University that spread to a dozen other campuses across the country.
He is a Syrian-born Palestinian. He came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2022 for graduate school at Columbia. He married a U.S. citizen in 2023, and became a legal permanent resident (a green card holder) in 2024.
The legal basis for the warrant is questionable based on the conflicting claims by the arresting agents. Per Khalil’s motion to compel return, the agents arresting him claimed his student visa was revoked by the Department of State, then later claimed it was actually his green card that was revoked.
[Khalil’s attorney] asked if Agent Hernandez had a warrant, and he answered in the affirmative, stating that Mr. Khalil’s student visa had been revoked by the U.S. Department of State and therefore they were detaining him. Id. Attorney Greer advised Agent Hernandez that Mr. Khalil is a lawful permanent resident and has the right to due process. Agent Hernandez responded that the Department of State had revoked Mr. Khalil’s green card, too, and that he would be brought in front of an immigration judge and hung up the phone.
They transferred Khalil from New York to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, and prevented phone contact between him and his lawyer.
The District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order blocking Khalil’s deportation pending a hearing in New York on Wednesday, stating “Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise.”
What to Know About the Executive Actions
On January 29, 2025, Trump signed an Executive Order called Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism. While purporting to address anti-semitism at universities, it was a blatant attack on constitutionally protected anti-war demonstrations:
These attacks unleashed an unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses.
In case that was too ambiguous, a White House Fact Sheet clarified:
To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.
This Fact Sheet cites the law in 8 USC 1182: Inadmissible aliens. They are attempting to use the portions of the law for denying and revoking visas by claiming pro-Palestine protestors:
[endorse] or [espouse] terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization
Homeland Security officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and President Donald Trump have confirmed that the arrest was directly tied to his role in the protests.
Constitutional Violation
The problem is, the First Amendment applies to green card holders as well. While they can still face deportation, the bar is significantly higher than for visa holders.
In fact, this exact issue was already addressed and resolved in 2007 after a 20-year-long case where the government targeted a group of eight immigrants in 1987 for engaging in political speech and supporting Palestinian rights. As the case resolved, the presiding judge Bruce J. Einhorn called the government’s actions in the case “an embarrassment to the rule of law.”
To emphasize, protesting against Israel’s actions against Gaza is not inherently anti-semitism, nor is it endorsing Hamas.
The government arresting protestors for speech that said government doesn’t like or agree with is the very reason the First Amendment exists in the first place.
Sources:
Presidential Action: Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism
White House Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Takes Forceful and Unprecedented Steps to Combat Anti-Semitism
8 USC 1182: Inadmissible aliens
Khalil court filing: Motion to Compel Return
Court order blocking deportation: Case 25-CV-1935
Green card holders’ rights in spotlight after arrest of pro-Palestinian activist (NPR)
California Judge Ends 20-Year-Old Deportation Case Against Palestinians (ACLU, 2007)
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