Mahmoud Khalil fick inte närvara vid sonens födsel

Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist and lead negotiator for the encampment in the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupations, was taken from his New York City apartment building by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on March 8, 2025. The agents were acting on orders from the State Department to revoke Khalil's student visa. When the agents were informed that Khalil is a lawful permanent resident, they said this status would be revoked instead. He was transported to LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana. The detention is the first publicly known deportation effort related to pro-Palestine activism under President Donald Trump, who has threatened to punish students and others he says support Hamas or promote antisemitism. Khalil's detention has received widespread backlash from lawyers, members of the Democratic Party, and civil rights organizations, who say it is an attack on freedom of speech and the First Amendment. There is no criminal charge against Khalil. Instead, the government's argument depends on a section of the Cold War–era Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which provides that aliens in the U.S. may be deported if the Secretary of State believes their presence will have serious negative consequences for U.S. foreign policy. Several journalists and human rights organizations have noted the connection between this law and McCarthyism. On April 11, 2025, Louisiana immigration judge Jamee E. Comans ruled that Khalil is deportable, under Secretary of State Marco Rubio's assertion that his continued presence poses "adverse foreign policy consequence". The judge said she had no authority to question that determination. A federal district court has issued a stay on Khalil's deportation while it considers a separate case challenging the constitutionality of his arrest and detention.