White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that former Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested and his green card revoked for “siding with terrorists.”
Leavitt addressed Khalil’s situation during a press conference on Tuesday and said a crime was not necessary to justify the deportation of a foreign national from the United States.
“Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the secretary of State has the right to revoke a green card or a visa for individuals who are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America,” Leavitt said.
“Mahmud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges, and he took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege by siding with terrorists – Hamas terrorists who have killed innocent men, women, and children,” she continued.
Immigration authorities arrested Khalil from his apartment on Columbia University’s campus over the weekend. Khalil had finished his graduate studies at Columbia in December, and planned to walk during the graduation ceremony at the end of the school year.
One of the arresting agents told Khalil’s attorney that his green card had been revoked. Khalil is currently in federal custody.
Khalil is a Syrian national of Palestinian descent who led protests and occupations on Columbia’s campus last year over United States support for Israel. Khalil also served as the spokesman for protesters and was one of the students leading negotiations with university leadership.
Leavitt said later in the press conference that Columbia University has been given a list of students who, along with Khalil, the Trump administration says voiced support for terror groups. She noted that the university has refused to cooperate, however.
“Columbia University has been given the names of other individuals who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity, and they are refusing to help DHS identify those individuals on campus,” Leavitt said. “As the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday, he is not going to tolerate that, and we expect all America’s colleges and universities to comply with this administration’s policy.”
A federal judge moved on Monday to block Khalil’s immediate deportation while legal challenges over his arrest and the revocation of his green card play out. In the meantime, it is unclear where he would be deported to. His home country of Syria has descended into chaos under its new leadership, the terror group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, after its former government was toppled late last year.
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