According to Trump advisor Stephen Miller, the Columbia University student targeted for deportation by the Trump administration had previously endorsed the destruction of both Israel and the United States, effectively forfeiting his right to remain in the country. In a post on X, the Trump immigration authority alleged that Mahmoud Khalil, 29, was detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement after his anti-Israel protests in 2024 escalated into overt support for terrorism.
“America exercises sole and exclusive control over admission to our country. We are a sovereign nation. Admission is a privilege — an extraordinary privilege. Not a right,” Miller wrote on Sunday. “Those who sympathize with terrorism are unwelcome on our shores. They will be denied entry or sent home.”
Since his arrest, media coverage of Khalil has intensified. The Syrian-born former graduate student has vanished from public view, and friends and relatives report that they can no longer contact him or learn about his whereabouts. He has since been reported to be held at a facility in Louisiana. Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates have decried the detainment, which ICE said in a statement was done “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” because he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
Khalil has been associated with anti-Israel boycotts at Columbia University, where he attended the School of International and Public Affairs, as well as Barnard College. Last year, he represented students who occupied campus buildings and refused to leave until Columbia agreed to divest its investments from all companies affiliated with Israel.
At Barnard College, Khalil appeared in a video recorded inside one of the academic buildings. He was involved in a protest that included spreading antisemitic propaganda throughout the facility, according to independent journalist Eitan Fischberger. Some of the photographs shared by Fischberger depict aggressive imagery along with phrases like “death to America.”
