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The Free Press
The ICE Detention of a Columbia Student Is Just the Beginning
The ICE Detention of a Columbia Student Is Just the Beginning
Mahmoud Khalil, second from left, at a protest at Columbia University on October 12, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura via AP Photo)
A White House official says that Mahmoud Khalil posed a ‘threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States.’ And that his case is a blueprint for more arrests.
By Gabe Kaminsky, Madeleine Rowley, and Maya Sulkin
03.11.25 — U.S. Politics
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The Free Press
The Free Press
The ICE Detention of a Columbia Student Is Just the Beginning

On Saturday evening, federal immigration authorities arrested an anti-Israel activist who helped lead protests against the Jewish state on Columbia University’s campus after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack. As progressive activists and free speech advocates protested the move to revoke Mahmoud Khalil’s green card over civil liberties concerns Monday, President Donald Trump warned that Khalil’s arrest would be the first “of many to come.”

Indeed, a White House official told The Free Press that the basis for targeting Khalil is being used as a blueprint for investigations against other students.

Khalil is a “threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States,” said the official, noting that this calculation was the driving force behind the arrest. “The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law,” said the official.

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Gabe Kaminsky

Gabe Kaminsky is an investigative reporter for The Free Press.

Madeleine Rowley

Madeleine Rowley is an investigative reporter covering immigration, financial corruption, and politics. She is a 2023-2024 Manhattan Institute Logos Fellow with previous bylines in The Free Press, City Journal, and Public. As a U.S. Army spouse for almost a decade, she's lived in six states and spent two years in Jerusalem, Israel. She currently resides on the East Coast with her husband and daughter.

Maya Sulkin

Maya Sulkin is a reporter for The Free Press, where she covers breaking news, higher education, Gen-Z, and culture. Maya began at The Free Press as an intern during her time as an undergraduate at Columbia University, where she studied History. She went on to serve as the company's Chief of Staff. She is a 2025 recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship.

Tags:
Columbia
Antisemitism
Donald Trump
Big Tech and Free Speech
ICE
Campus Wars
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