The ice stops a Palestinian activist who led Columbia demonstrations, said the lawyer

New York (AP) – The federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian graduate student who played a leading role last spring Anti-Israeli protests at Columbia UniversityAccording to his lawyer.

Mahmoud Khalil was inside his residence belonging to the university on Saturday evening near the Columbia campus in Manhattan when several immigration and customs application agents entered the building and placed it in police custody, Amy Greer told the Associated Press.

Greer said that she had spoken by telephone with one of the ice agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on the orders of the State Department to revoke the Khalil student visa. Informed by the lawyer that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said that he also revoked this, according to the lawyer.

The arrest seemed to be among the first actions known under the commitment of President Donald Trump to expel international students who joined the demonstrations against the War of Israel in Gaza which swept academic campuses last spring. His administration said that the participants lost their rights to stay in the country by supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization.

Khalil was a negotiator for the students when they had negotiated with university officials during the end of the tents camp erected on the campus, a role that made him one of the few militant students ready to share his name and his identity.

The authorities refused to tell the wife of Khalil, eight months pregnant, if he was accused of having committed a crime, said Greer. Khalil has since been transferred to an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

“We were unable to get more details about the reasons why he is detained,” said Greer in the AP. “This is a clear escalation. The administration follows its threats. »»

A spokesperson for Columbia said that law enforcement officers should produce a mandate before entering university property, but refused to say if the school had received one before Khalil’s arrest. The spokesperson also refused to comment on Khalil’s detention.

The messages requesting comments were left to the State Department, the Ministry of Internal Security and Ice.

The Ministry of Internal Security can initiate an expulsion procedure against holders of green cards for a wide range of alleged criminal activities, in particular by supporting a terrorist group. He would finally be up to an immigration judge to revoke the permanent resident status of someone, according to Camille Mackler, founder of an immigrant arch, a coalition of legal service providers in New York.

“It has the appearance of a reprisal action against someone who expressed an opinion that the Trump administration did not like,” said Mackler.

Khalil was among those Surveyed by an office at New Columbia University This brought disciplinary charges against dozens of students who expressed their criticism of Israel, according to the files shared with the AP.

These surveys arise as the Trump administration has increased control over Columbia due to what the government describes as the failure of the Ivy League school to fail anti -Semitism on the campus. Federal agencies announced that they would be Cut $ 400 million in subsidies and contracts of the university.

The allegation against Khalil focused on his involvement in the apartheid disinvestment group of Columbia University, saying that he had helped organize an “unauthorized walking event” which glorified Hamas on October 7, attacker and played a “substantial role” in the circulation of publications on social media criticizing Zionism.

“I have about 13 allegations against me, most of them are publications on the social networks with which I had nothing to do,” Khalil told the AP last week.

“They just want to show the right-wing congress and politicians that they do something, regardless of the issues for students,” he added. “It is mainly an office to cool pro-Palestine speech.”