What’s happening at Columbia?
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U.S. immigration agents arrested a Palestinian graduate student who has played a prominent role in pro-Palestinian protests at New York's Columbia University, the student workers' labor union said on Sunday.
The student, Mahmoud Khalil at the university's School of International and Public Affairs, was arrested by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents at his university residence on Saturday, the Student Workers of Columbia union said in a statement.
Khalil's detention appears to be one of the first efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican who returned to the White House in January, to fulfill his promise to seek the deportation of some foreign students involved in the pro-Palestinian protest movement. The Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza have led to months of pro-Palestinian protests that have roiled U.S. college campuses.
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Talked to my friend in leadership there last night. Apparently they were told if they sued they’d cut off student aid funds too. But they’re going to cooperate. They’re supposed to release a statement Wednesday (at least that was their plan as of yesterday).
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Hamas is a terrorist organization. While foreign students should have a level of free speech in this country, the protests at Columbia crossed the line quite some time ago. They've advocated terrorism, they have intimidated Jewish students and they have disrupted classes and student attendance. And they have damaged school property.
Time for some agitators to go.
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I think that Jolly is correct.
In this case, they take a "high profile" person and make the example.
Pretty common to do this I think. (IRS going after celebrity tax cheater, etc.)
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Right but let’s make sure the tax cheating actually occurred and not just ‘he was a vocal member of a group that included tax cheats’.
@jon-nyc Agree, but in my admitted small research, he was one of the leaders that led the protest that damaged buildings, blocked other going in, etc.
