How a Columbia protest leader ‘aligned to Hamas’ came into ICE’s crosshairs

President Donald Trump’s directives on antisemitism have brought a Syrian-born leader of a violent pro-Hamas protest into custody, stripped of his residency.

Immigration authorities arrested Syrian-born Mahmoud Khalil on Sunday after his involvement in a student encampment at Columbia University, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Khalil’s career path spanned several Western-funded institutions before he became an advocate for students illegally occupying campus buildings multiple times, leading to calls to remove him from the country.

“We commend the Trump administration for commencing deportations,” pro-Israel activist group Betar US told the DCNF. Betar previously gave Trump’s officials a list of foreign college students, faculty and staff, suggesting they revoke their visas for supporting terrorism. Khalil’s name was one of at least 120 on Betar’s list, the group confirmed.

“We are glad at this step although much more is needed,” Betar spokesperson Daniel Levy said.

The New York-based law firm defending Khalil did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

Khalil dubbed himself the “lead negotiator” for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group on the front lines of an illegal encampment last April that saw protesters occupying a school building, assaulting Jewish students, praising Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, setting up tents and refusing to leave until police dispersed them. He told a reporter at the encampment he was “negotiating” with Columbia “to meet our demands” to divest from companies linked to Israel — while in the process of earning his Master’s Degree in public administration.

Khalil also told the press “he is attending the University on an F-1 visa” and was trying to avoid protest actions that would get him deported, the Columbia Spectator reported at the time.

Khalil’s LinkedIn profile says he got his Bachelor’s in 2018 from Lebanese American University, a private school that received grants worth millions of dollars from the Biden administration before Trump froze foreign aid. Khalil then worked in the United Kingdom’s government to manage scholarship awards and humanitarian programs aimed at Syria.

Khalil later interned at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency from June to November 2023. The U.S. is the top donor to UNRWA at more than $7.3 billion but paused funding after intelligence revealed the agency hired terrorists as schoolteachers and helped Hamas kill Jews during the Oct. 7 invasion.

ICE targeted Khalil “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

ICE’s inmate database indicated he is being held in Los Angeles as of Monday. The State Department revoked his student visa and green card allowing him residency in the U.S., the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Khalil was also spotted in a protest at the Columbia-affiliated Barnard College that began on Feb. 26. Protesters took over another building, allegedly assaulted an employee and displayed Hamas propaganda papers over the course of two weeks, initially in response to Columbia expelling anti-Israel students. Khalil was captured on video standing among the Barnard crowd and appeared to be helping negotiations with the school.

News broke after the protests that Trump’s officials had pulled $400 million in federal funds for Columbia over its handling of campus antisemitism. The Trump administration is focused on fulfilling his campaign promise to deport foreigners who support terrorism — to the dismay of activists who call it a crackdown on speech against Israeli “genocide.” Federal law allows the removal of any foreign national who “endorses or espouses” foreign terrorists or “terrorist activity.”

Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs, which awarded Khalil his Master’s in December, did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the DCNF.

Columbia’s public affairs office acknowledged “reports of ICE in the streets around campus” in a Sunday statement and said “Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations” and “to the legal rights of our students.”

“Suffice it to say this process is just commencing,” Betar told the DCNF regarding deportations. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”

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