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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Heba Gowayed

Mahmoud Khalil is being used as a pawn in Trump’s mass deportation plan

a man speaking
Mahmoud Khalil at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University in New York on 29 April 2024. Photograph: Ted Shaffrey/AP

On 8 March, Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, was apprehended from university housing by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents. Khalil, a Palestinian and student leader at the Columbia encampments last year, was told by the arresting officers that his green card had been “revoked”, an action that only an immigration judge can decide. It has since been revealed that he is in Ice custody in La Salle, Louisiana, a detention site notorious for abuse.

On Truth Social, Donald Trump celebrated the apprehension of Khalil, whom he called “a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” and bragged of more arrests to come.

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