Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident and master’s student at Columbia University, was detained by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers in March 2025 and subsequently transferred to an immigration detention center in Louisiana. Despite holding a green card, Khalil was targeted for deportation under a Cold War-era legal provision invoked by then-Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who argued that Khalil’s continued presence in the United States posed “adverse foreign policy consequences.” Khalil was released on bail in June 2024 after a federal judge ruled his detention unconstitutional, but efforts to remove him from the country have persisted.

Khalil, born to Palestinian parents in a refugee camp in Syria, became the focus of government scrutiny due to his vocal support for pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. These demonstrations called for severing the university’s ties with Israeli academic institutions and companies implicated in Israel’s military actions in Gaza. During the protests, Columbia University involved the New York Police Department. Khalil was never accused of criminal activity; rather, authorities singled him out primarily because of his prominent role in the pro-Palestinian movement on campus. He spent 104 days in detention, missing the birth of his son.

In his memoir, *No Land to Stand On*, Khalil describes his experience as emblematic of what he sees as an increasingly authoritarian immigration enforcement policy. While his case attracted public attention and afforded him legal representation, many other detainees—originating from countries including Georgia, Romania, Senegal, Nepal, El Salvador, and Chechnya—endure prolonged detention with limited legal recourse in a system characterised by opacity and delay.

The controversy surrounding Khalil’s detention unfolded amid broader tensions on campus, where supporters of Palestinians faced accusations of antisemitism and antagonism from pro-Israel student groups. Khalil and others reported a discrepancy in how the university addressed conflicting forms of campus activism, citing instances where pro-Israel students filming events were seen as engaging in legitimate discourse, whereas pro-Palestinian vigils were labelled security risks.

Khalil himself rejects the label of “activist,” emphasising the involuntary nature of his political identity as a Palestinian. His personal history is marked by conflict: shot by Syrian government forces as a teenager, he fled Syria in 2013 to Lebanon, eventually working at the British embassy in Beirut. He arrived in the United States in 2022 after marrying a U.S. citizen.

Khalil’s detention and the ongoing attempts to deport him highlight the complexities of immigration enforcement extending beyond criminal convictions to include political considerations. His case underscores the difficult position faced by Palestinians within the broader context of U.S. foreign policy and immigration law, raising questions about civil liberties and due process for foreign-born residents advocating for contentious causes inside the United States.