Thousands of people took to the streets in New York City on March 10 to denounce the Trump administration’s brutal attacks against student protest and the pro-Palestine movement. They marched to demand the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia University and activist who took part in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment last year. On March 8, Khalil, who is from Algeria and of Palestinian origin, was arrested by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents and is being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

Khalil was arrested for nothing other than protesting against the genocide in Gaza. The DHS agents who waited for him and his wife at their Columbia University housing said that his student visa was being revoked in line with Donald Trump’s recent executive order and subsequent directives to deport pro-Palestine student activists. When Khalil’s lawyer explained that he resides in the United States with a green card, the agents told her that they were revoking that too and took him into custody. Khalil disappeared after his arrest, with his family and lawyer unable to locate him for hours. When his wife went to visit him in a New Jersey detainment center, she was told he was transferred to an unknown location. Now it is being reported that Khalil has been sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana. 

Khalil’s arrest is a blatant example of how the repressive arms of the state work together to not only target immigrants, but suppress the right to protest as the Far Right goes after our democratic rights. Trump came to power demonizing and promising to criminalize undocumented immigrants, but his administration has launched an offensive against all immigrants, especially those who question the U.S. empire. Khalil’s arrest sets a dangerous precedent: no one is safe, not even those who have the limited protections of a green card. Many universities are working hand-in-hand with these attacks, allowing ICE to operate on their campuses; Columbia University reportedly ignored requests by Khalil for protection for himself and other international students fearing retaliation by Zionist organizers and ICE. 

Outrage exploded immediately after news broke of Khalil’s arrest at this blatant violation of the right to protest, immigrants rights, and free speech. A petition circulating online to demand his immediate release has already received over one million signatures. Protests like the one held today in New York have also been announced in Chicago and other cities. Based on a nationwide call from Palestinian rights organizations, students, faculty, and staff from universities across New York City are planning a walkout for March 11 to continue the fight.

Protesters are calling for Khalil’s release, but they are going further to denounce the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants, the student movement and universities, and the pro-Palestine movement more broadly.

The detainment of Mahmoud Khalil follows the expulsion of Pro-Palestine student activists from Barnard College, a sister university of Columbia University, and continuing targeting of student activists across college campuses. The Trump administration has vowed to ramp up the repression of pro-Palestine activism and criticism of Israel alongside threats to take control of Gaza. Last week the state revoked $400 million in federal grant funding from Columbia University to pressure the school to crack down on student protests. On top of Trump’s executive orders to curb university activism, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signaled that the state will use AI to search online records and social media accounts to identify foreign students who voice support for Palestine and revoke their visas and green cards. Rubio touted Khalil’s arrest, saying that the administration has “zero tolerance” for those who participate in pro-Palestine activism.

Donald Trump later took to social media to say that Khalil’s arrest would be the first of many as part of a sweeping, McCarthyist crackdown on student dissent. Columbia University is the epicenter of these attacks once again as the administration works hand-in-hand with the government to repress its students.

In response to this escalation in repression, students and faculty on campus are beginning to fight back. Last week students staged actions to protest the expulsion of student activists. The graduate workers union, Student Workers of Columbia, released a letter to Columbia administration urging them to stand up against the attacks by the Trump administration and, among other things, to establish “Columbia as a sanctuary campus for noncitizens; refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities investigating students, faculty, and staff…” Just yesterday, faculty entered the fray, leading a press conference to denounce Khalil’s arrest and the state’s use of deportation as a tool to suppress political dissent. 

Now the Palestinian organizations and student organizations are once again taking the fight to the streets to fight against this crackdown on student protest and the Trump administration’s attacks on universities. They reject the administration’s escalation of the McCarthyist offensive against criticism of Israel launched under Joe Biden as well as the massive cuts to university programs and research centered on anything the administration deems “woke” — from Black history and gender and sexuality studies to anything that remotely critiques the U.S. empire. 

The outrage against Khalil’s arrest has already forced a federal judge to halt his deportation, contesting Trump’s order. The courts may be the stage on which the drama of the tensions within the regime is set, but it is in the streets that the future of our struggle will be decided. To free Khalil, win divestment, and end the genocide requires the coordinated requires the coordinated action of students, faculty, and staff with a perspective of drawing in more forces to the struggle around a broad democratic campaign; it means fighting for these demands in the full knowledge that it is also a fight against the Far Right and its broader attacks on our schools, workplaces, communities, and rights — we must demand that our unions take action, and unite the struggles of the immigrants rights movement, against the attacks on trans people, against mass layoffs, and all of the administration’s plans to attack our living conditions while easing the way for capitalist profit. 

Free Mahmoud Khalil! ICE out of our schools and communities! 

This is a developing story.