Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil returned to the university Monday for a press conference to speak about his detention and that of New Jersey resident Leqaa Kordia.<\/p>\n
Both were arrested following protests at Columbia over the war in Gaza.
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What You Need to Know
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\nColumbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil returned to the university Monday for a press conference to speak about his detention and that of New Jersey resident Leqaa Kordi
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\nIt has been a year to the day after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Khalil following his participating in pro-Palestinian campus protests
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\nKhalil also criticized the Trump administration, which continues its efforts to deport him
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\u201cThey don\u2019t want anyone to speak for Palestine,\u201d Khalil said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want anyone to speak for human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
It has been a year to the day after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Khalil following his participating in pro-Palestinian campus protests.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here with a very heavy heart too,\u201d he said. \u201cNext to an institution, a fortified fortress behind me, [which] did everything in its power to silence me, to disappear me, to disappear any Palestinian voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Columbia University counters that it “supports students\u2019 right to protest and advocate for issues they believe in. At the same time, we want to be very clear: no member of Columbia\u2019s leadership or its trustees has ever requested, invited, or coordinated the presence of ICE agents against members of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khalil also criticized the Trump administration, which continues its efforts to deport him.<\/p>\n
Although the federal government has not charged him with a crime, administration officials accuse him of promoting antisemitism in the demonstrations and failing to disclose key details on his application for permanent residency, which Khalil denies and his supporters deny.<\/p>\n
While at Columbia, Khalil also joined protesters in calling for the release of another activist,Leqaa Kordia, among the first pro-Palestinian demonstrators arrested for criticizing Israel’s military actions in Gaza. She remains jailed and issued a statement through a spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cMay Allah Almighty bless you and protect you,\u201d her spokesperson said. \u201cStay bold, stay loud, stay unshakable, stay safe. Love Leqaa Kordia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s press conference and protest follow the detention of another Columbia student who was arrested at her on-campus residence last week but released hours later after appeals to the Trump administration from the university and Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n
Khalil, who was arrested last year in his Columbia-owned apartment, has two cases he\u2019s fighting: one in federal court and another in immigration court. <\/p>\n
While the federal judge who ordered him released has also issued an order barring the government from deporting Khalil, a U.S. appeals court said that judge had no authority to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust last week we filed an appeal to the Board of Immigration,\u201d Khalil said.\u00a0
\n\u201cAt the end of this month, we will ask the Third Circuit to review the federal court decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, Mamdani asked President Trump to end Khalil\u2019s case and that of four other immigrants from the New York-area.<\/p>\n
In a statement to NY1, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said,\u00a0\u201cOn March 13, 2025, HSI arrested Leqaa Kordia, from the West Bank (Palestine), for immigration violations related to overstaying her expired student visa. She violated the terms of her student visa. Previously, in April 2024, Kordia was arrested by local law enforcement for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil returned to the university Monday for a press conference to speak about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[25,75,84,83,9,24,12,26,63,27,200],"class_list":["post-158944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-top-stories","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nia-clark","tag-nyc","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}