Columbia Protestor Arrested by ICE Moved to Louisiana Detention Facility

Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University protester who was detained by ICE on Saturday, has been moved to a detention facility in Louisiana, according to ICE’s detainee locator system. Khalil was a key part of Columbia students’ protests last year against Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza in response to the October 7 attacks. He is a green card holding legal permanent resident of the U.S. and has not been charged with a crime.

The news follows Khalil’s attorney initially being told he was being detained in a New Jersey facility, but after his wife went to visit him, found that Khalil was not there, according to the Associated Press. 

The locator system says Khalil is being held in the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility. It is owned and operated by the Geo Group, a long-time ICE contractor. Previous research found the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility received the largest number of sexual and physical abuse complaints filed to ICE’s oversight body.

ICE confirmed Khalil’s arrest in a post to X on Sunday, writing “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student. Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” ICE did not explain or provide evidence for how Khalil was “aligned to Hamas.” 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also posted to X saying “we will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

Khalil’s attorney Amy Greer said she spoke on the phone with one of the ICE agents during Khalil’s arrest on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. The ICE agent said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa. When Greer said that Khalil is a legal permanent resident with a green card, the ICE agent said they were revoking that instead, the Associated Press added.

Last Spring protestors at Columbia set up a tent encampment on university grounds to protest the mass killing of Palestinians by Israel, often with the aid of U.S. weapons. Those protests ended when a large police presence entered the university and forcibly removed the protesters. Khalil acted as a negotiator for students as they bargained with the university to end the tent encampment, the Associated Press added.

On Friday a group of government agencies said they had cancelled $400 million in federal grants and contracts with Columbia University over what they described as the university’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”