(NewsNation) — A judge heard arguments Wednesday about the arrest of a former Columbia University student who helped lead pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
Mahmoud Khalil, born in Syria and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp, holds legal permanent resident status in the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Khalil on Saturday and transferred him to a detention center in Louisiana.
Khalil will remain detained in Louisiana until at least next week following the initial court hearing in New York on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s plans to deport him for his role in campus protests against Israel.
The hearing focused on jurisdictional issues after Khalil, 30, was moved to the detention center in the South.
Government attorneys want his case decided in New Jersey or Louisiana, while his lawyers seek to return it to New York and have him released under supervision.
Khalil’s wife, a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant, attended the hearing. His legal team claims they have been unable to contact him since his detention and later accused the administration of violating his free speech rights.
The hearing is the first challenge to President Donald Trump’s January executive order prohibiting antisemitism on college campuses and using that as justification for deportation.
According to Khalil’s lawyer, Amy Greer, ICE officers said his student visa was revoked under Trump’s executive order. When Khalil showed them he was not in the country on a student visa but rather as a legal permanent resident, the officers said that was also revoked, Greer said.
“I think we ought to get them all out of the country,” Trump said about Khalil’s arrest Tuesday. “They’re troublemakers, they’re agitators. They don’t love our country. We ought to get them the hell out. I think that guy — I heard his statements too. They were plenty bad, and I think we had to get him the hell out of the country.”
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, on a Wednesday trip to the New York state Capitol, said Khalil was arrested because there are “limitations” to free speech.
“I hear freedom of speech, freedom of speech, freedom of speech. Can you stand in a movie theater and yell ‘fire’? Can you slander somebody verbally? Free speech has limitations,” Homan said.
Khalil’s lawyer argues that ICE’s actions violate his First Amendment and Fifth Amendment rights.
A federal judge in Manhattan blocked Khalil’s deportation earlier this week. Khalil is a green card holder, which allows him due process rights under the U.S. Constitution.
What did Mahmoud Khalil do during the Columbia protests?
Khalil finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December.
Columbia became the center of a U.S. pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across college campuses nationwide last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.
He acted as a spokesperson for Columbia protesters and hasn’t been charged with a crime. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the administration moved to deport him under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to deport a noncitizen on foreign policy grounds.
Can ICE take away Mahmoud Khalil’s green card?
Khalil was one of the most visible activists at Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian rallies in 2024. The Department of Homeland Security has accused him of “leading activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
The agency is sanctioned to initiate deportation proceedings against green card holders for a broad range of alleged criminal activity.
But according to immigration experts, the detention of a legal permanent resident who has not been charged with a crime marked an extraordinary move with an uncertain legal foundation.
“I would gather that anyone that has a political view or has protested and also has a green card would be nervous,” Rosanna Berardi, managing partner at Berardi Immigration Law, told NewsNation.
“If this is any indication of the administration’s position on green card holders that their own agency vetted at a super-high level and gave a green card … and this is the behavior of the administration, I would be gravely concerned,” Berardi said.
NewsNation has reached out to Khalil’s lawyer, the Justice Department, DHS and Columbia University for comment but has not yet heard back.
Mahmoud Khalil case first ‘of many to come’
Trump himself said Khalil’s arrest was the first of many during his second term. The administration is not only targeting students who participated in protests but also the universities themselves.
The Department of Education sent letters to 60 universities warning they were under investigation for alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment for allowing pro-Palestinian protests to occur on school grounds.
Following the letters, the University of California, Los Angeles — the site of a large pro-Khalil protest Tuesday — announced it is starting a new initiative to combat antisemitism on campus.
The Trump administration has already canceled $400 million worth of grants to Columbia University as of Friday. The school’s response to pro-Palestinian protests on its New York City campus was explicitly cited as the reason behind the funding changes.
Harvard University announced a faculty and staff hiring freeze Monday due to “substantial financial uncertainties driven by rapidly shifting federal policies.”
Detaining of Columbia grad is suppression of First Amendment: Geraldo Rivera
Geraldo Rivera argued that moving Khalil to Louisiana reveals the government’s true motives in the case.
“The fact that they secreted him off to Louisiana, of all places, in the dark of night really reveals the motive of ICE and the federal agents — they want to silence this person,” Rivera said.
Rivera also acknowledged concerns about antisemitism on college campuses since October 7, calling it a “vile kind of confrontation” and “harassment of Jewish students.” However, he characterized the government’s handling of Khalil’s case as “ham-handed” and problematic.
“This really looks bad. It looks as if they’re trying to suppress his First Amendment rights,” Rivera said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Khalil’s case is “not about free speech.”
“This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card,” Rubio said.
Rivera pushed back, saying there’s “absolutely zero evidence that this particular person screamed anything at anybody, blocked anybody from anything, behaved in any way that would violate either local laws or federal law.”
Rivera, who identified himself as a supporter of Israel, said, “I’m a Zionist, but still, I’m also an American, and I’m proud of my Constitution, and I abhor this attempt to silence this person.”
“If you’re so confident in your case, why is he in Louisiana?” Rivera asked. “What connection does this case add to Louisiana other than the fact that you want to inconvenience anyone who wants to talk to him and keep him in isolation?”
NewsNation’s Damita Menezes and The Associated Press contributed to this report.