The Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian inciter and pro-Hamas sympathizer, at his Columbia University-owned apartment building on Saturday, March 8, has fulfilled one of Donald Trump’s pledges of his 2024 Presidential campaign: Jew-hatred and anti-American actions will no longer be tolerated on campus – or anywhere in the country – or one runs the risk of lawful arrest and deportation.
ICE’s arrest of Khalil follows an executive order by the Trump administration that calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … [and to] hold to account perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.” Trump has long said that foreign students who hold demonstrations in support of Hamas “will be imprisoned or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.” ICE agents explained to the media over the weekend that they were acting on a US State Department order to revoke Khalil’s student visa and permanent resident status.
“This is the first arrest of many to come,” a euphoric Trump wrote on his Truth Social page on Monday, March 10. “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. Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again. 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. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply.”
On Monday, the White House’s Twitter/X account shared Trump’s post while also adding, “SHALOM MAHMOUD.”
Khalil, who earned his graduate degree at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in December, was the chief architect of anti-Israel mob brigades on campus, which included building takeovers and encampments. These vile actions began just within days of the multipronged Hamas terror assault that killed close to 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023.
Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) spokeswoman, confirmed Khalil’s arrest over the weekend. In a statement, Khalil’s arrest by ICE was made in support of “Trump’s executive order prohibiting anti-Semitism.” The DHS’s official Twitter/X account also posted that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Trump’s multi-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism to Protect Jewish Groups on Campus was one of his first executive orders Trump made since becoming President.
“We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America, so they can be deported,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted over the weekend.
On Monday, Judge Jesse Furman of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in a notice that it was halting Khalil’s deportation and ordered a hearing to be held on Wednesday, March 12. After being brought into custody, he was moved and has since been held in the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana.
The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, created during the Israel-Hamas war, tweeted that Khalil abused his entitlements.
“A green card is a privilege that millions wait years for. So is studying @Columbia. Khalil threw them away. His actions prove he neither respects nor deserves the shot he was given. No one should feel sorry for him,” the alumni association wrote in part on its Twitter/X handle. It also wrote a seven-part thread explaining that freedom of speech does not apply in Khalil’s case.
“No one forced Khalil to barge onto campus, disrupt learning, or take over buildings. No one forced him to lead mobs, demonize America, or harass and intimidate Jews. That was his choice,” read part of the thread. “Khalil has spent over a year abusing the privileges this country and @Columbia gave him. He faced zero consequences – until now. If he is FINALLY removed as an anti-Semitic provocateur, this isn’t a tragedy. This is justice,” read the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association’s long post.
Khalil’s arrest comes after it was documented that the Trump administration used artificial intelligence to find and deport students who had been supporting Hamas, as reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus at Columbia University (@CampusJewHate) wrote, “Mahmoud Khalil, the foreign student who is one of the leading agitators on campus, is still causing trouble. [Khalil] seems to be present at every encampment and every sit-in or building takeover.”
Elle Cohanim, a former diplomat and broadcast journalist who served as Deputy Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism in Trump’s first term, said that the administration deserves plaudits for putting a strong national security apparatus in play.
“I am just so ashamed of the Columbia University administration that it allowed the Jew hate to fester on their campus now for 17 months. They are not getting the memo,” Cohanim said in an interview with “FOX and Friends.”
“It’s time for the university administrators across the country to grow a spine and remember their morality. They need to understand that [Trump’s] team is not going to allow Jew hate to continue to fester in our country… This is a real interagency task force that’s bringing all the powers of the United States government to end Jew hatred and to end this festering anti-Semitism. This is an incredible model that I believe governments all around the world can replicate.”
It was also announced on Friday, March 7, that the Trump administration canceled government contracts and grants – about $400 million – that were awarded to Columbia. That proclamation was made in a joint statement by the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the US General Services Administration.
“Freezing of the funds is one of the tools we are using to respond to this spike in anti-Semitism. This is only the beginning,” said Leo Terrel, the Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and head of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. His comments aligned with the announcement on Monday, March 3, that a comprehensive review of the university’s federal contracts and grants in light of the ongoing investigations for potential violations.
“After attending many counter-protests against Hamas rallies at Columbia and attending many pro-Israel rallies there, I am very enthused that the Trump administration is finally holding the university accountable for its outrageous disregard of civil rights and basic protections of its Jewish students,” Rabbi Allen Schwartz of Congregation Ohab Zedek tells the Queens Jewish Link.
“$400 million represents a small drop in the bucket compared to Columbia’s multi-billion-dollar endowment, but it’s a start,” adds the rabbi, whose Orthodox synagogue operates within a mile of Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus.
“Violent thugs have gotten away with threatening Jewish students on elite college campuses all over the country, and they have done so with no fear of repercussions. Hopefully that will now change,” continues Rabbi Schwartz. “In the end, truth always prevails; but in this case, it needs to be moved along by the adults in the country.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-12) took a more withering rebuke of Trump regarding the arrest of Khalil and the revocation of funds against Columbia. Nadler, who has represented parts of Manhattan since 1992, said on March 10 that he was monitoring the situation in its totality.
“The warrantless arrest of any legal permanent resident seemingly solely over their speech is a chilling McCarthyesque action,” said the 77-year-old congressman, who also is a Columbia University alumnus.
“Revoking federal grants to Columbia University isn’t about combating anti-Semitism; it’s about the Trump administration’s war on education and science,” Nadler also wrote in a joint statement with Congressman Adriano Espaillat (D-13).
Rep. Nadler led the opposition to an anti-Semitism bill that still passed overwhelmingly last spring. At the time, pro-Palestinian protesters, led by Khalil, were ejected from Hamilton Hall.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a 26-year-old activist who served as Hillel President while a student at Queens College, and later attended Harvard Divinity School, disagrees with Nadler’s worldview. To be fair, he has every reason to – as Kestenbaum experienced anti-Semitism head-on while at Harvard.
“The individual [Khalil] regularly took part in unsanctioned protests that included assaulting police officers, sending university staff to the hospital, and disrupting the learning [for all the other] students,” Kestenbaum explains to the Queens Jewish Link.
“No one is above the law, and he will be held accountable for his actions,” he adds.
Kestenbaum began his college years as a supporter of the Democrats, but angry mobs at Harvard changed his political views. Viewing the Biden administration as feckless in fighting the scourge of anti-Semitism while on campus, Kestenbaum soon found himself as a guest speaker at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
As part of his speech, Kestenbaum expressed his disillusionment with anti-Semitic elements within both the far-left and far-right factions, but the Democrats’ weakness to confront these nefarious elements while in the majority stood out more glaringly.
“I will continue to work with policymakers and the Trump administration in any capacity, personal or professional, to ensure Jewish students are treated equally under the law,” concludes Kestenbaum.
By Jared Feldschreiber
