Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who is a green card holder, is being threatened with deportation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that an activist who led pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University and was arrested by federal immigration authorities and detained last week, is « going to leave — and so are others. »
« We’re going to keep doing it », Rubio said on « Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. »
Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, served as a negotiator on behalf of students during Columbia University’s 2024 student encampment protests. He was arrested March 8 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained in New Jersey before being transported to a federal detention facility in Louisiana. Officials were acting on a State Department order to revoke Khalil’s student visa and green card when he was arrested and detained, and Rubio said after the arrest that the administration will be revoking the visas and green cards « of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported. »
On Sunday, when asked whether he could provide evidence to support a link to terrorism, or whether Khalil was simply espousing a controversial political point of view, Rubio cited news footage, saying « these guys take over entire buildings, they vandalize colleges.
