President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to address the ICE apprehension of Mahmoud Khalil, whom he called “a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University.”
“This is the first arrest of many to come. 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,” Trump said in a post. “Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”
The president went on to say that many protesting Khalil’s arrest at universities are not students, but rather “paid agitators.”
Monday afternoon, a handful of protesters gathered outside the entrance to Columbia University in New York City, chanting “free Mahmoud Khalil” and “cops and ICE off campus.” They had a sign bearing the social media handle for The Revcoms, a self-described group of “revolutionary communists.”
ICE AGENTS ARREST ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST WHO LED PROTESTS ON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS FOR MONTHS
“If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here,” Trump’s post continued. “We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply.”
Students claim Khalil was a leader of protests and encampments on the Columbia University campus for months. He was taken into custody at his university-owned apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Saturday.
ICE agents told Khalil that they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card and student visa, according to Khalil’s attorney, Amy E. Greer. She released a statement alleging that ICE agents wrongfully arrested Khalil.
“Last night ICE agents wrongfully arrested Mahmoud Khalil, claiming his student visa was revoked – even though Mahmoud is legal permanent resident (green card) and not in the U.S. on a student visa,” Greer said. “Confronted with that fact, the ICE agents detained him anyway.”
Muslim civil rights organization CAIR National also came to Khalil’s defense and claimed in a post on X that he “is a lawful permanent resident” and vowed that the “fight is just starting.”
Khalil is now being held at the Jena/Lasalle Detention facility in Louisiana, ICE confirmed to Fox News. The facility serves as the Central Louisiana Ice Processing Center and has a capacity of more than 1,000.
Fox News’ Brendan McDonald, Stepheny Price and Alexis McAdams contributed to this report.
