This is just the start

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a erstwhile Columbia University student complete his engagement successful the pro-Palestine protests that swept the field complete the past year, moreover though he has a greenish paper and was ne'er charged pinch a crime. Columbia, the tract of a monthslong pro-Palestine encampment, became a peculiar obsession for right-wingers and wide Zionists alike, who accused the assemblage of turning a unsighted oculus to field antisemitism moreover arsenic it sent the New York Police Department to apprehension its ain students. This latest apprehension signals that the Trump management is likewise wished to punish protesters — and provides a glimpse into the surveillance devices it will utilization to execute that.

Mahmoud Khalil, who graduated from the university’s School of International and Public Affairs past December, was picked up by ICE successful his university-owned flat connected March 8, his attorney, Amy Greer, told the Associated Press. Khalil’s apprehension came conscionable days aft Axios reported that the State Department would beryllium utilizing AI to revoke visas for pro-Palestine student protesters. During the arrest, agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) section reportedly told Greer — who was connected the telephone pinch Khalil and his wife, a US national — that they were acting connected State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa. After Greer told the agents that Khalil is simply a imperishable resident, and Khalil’s woman showed them his greenish card, the agents said they were revoking his greenish card, moreover though the agency doesn’t person the ineligible authority to do that. Then the agents threatened to apprehension Khalil’s woman contempt her US citizenship. She is 8 months pregnant.

In an emailed connection to The Verge, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that Khalil had been arrested “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism.”

The remainder of her connection was likewise vague: “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated violent organization. ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting US nationalist security.”

McLaughlin’s connection and Khalil’s apprehension item the grade to which the government, often spurred by pro-Israel advocates, has equated protests against Israel’s warfare connected Gaza pinch some antisemitism and terrorism. While civilian authorities organizations person called Khalil’s apprehension a usurpation of the First Amendment, different groups that declare to advocator for free reside connected assemblage campuses person remained silent.

Greer has called the apprehension a clear lawsuit of retaliation. “ICE’s apprehension and detention of Mahmoud follows the US government’s unfastened repression of student activism and governmental speech, specifically targeting students astatine Columbia University for disapproval of Israel’s battle connected Gaza,” she told CNN. “The US authorities has made clear that they will usage migration enforcement arsenic a instrumentality to suppress that speech.”

In a habeas corpus petition revenge successful the Southern District of New York, Greer asked a national judge to bid Khalil’s release, erstwhile again describing his migration apprehension arsenic a usurpation of his First Amendment correct to free speech. “Even the threat of detention and deportation has a chilling effect connected speech,” Greer wrote. On Monday evening, Judge Jesse Furman prohibited DHS from deporting Khalil while his lawsuit is nether judicial reappraisal and ordered each parties to meet for a proceeding connected Wednesday, March 12th successful consequence to Khalil’s habeas petition.

It’s not unheard of for ICE to apprehension group pinch greenish cards; anyone who’s not a US citizen, including lawful imperishable residents, tin beryllium put into deportation proceedings for violating migration law. But the onus is connected ICE to beryllium that personification is “deportable.” Since lawful imperishable residents person ineligible position successful the US, those who extremity up successful deportation proceedings often get put connected ICE’s radar aft being charged pinch definite criminal offenses. Under the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, ineligible immigrants, including those pinch greenish cards, tin beryllium deported for having been convicted of a immense array of crimes — months aliases moreover years aft their conviction. But those deportations person to beryllium ordered by an migration judge; a person’s greenish paper can’t beryllium revoked without owed process.

But location are nary reports of Khalil having a criminal record, which raises questions astir why ICE detained him — and really they recovered him. (The NYPD did not respond to The Verge’s petition for comment.) His apprehension raises questions astir ICE’s surveillance servants of the state and the anticipation of authorities overreach.

To go a imperishable resident, Khalil had to registry pinch US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the DHS agency that handles ineligible migration. Under the Privacy Act, USCIS and different agencies must mostly safeguard people’s “personally identifiable information” — including their name, address, and biometric identifiers. But location are immoderate exceptions to this. USCIS is allowed to share information pinch different DHS agencies “as agelong arsenic location is simply a ngo request successful statement pinch the requestor’s charismatic duties.” A DHS policy memo issued successful 2007 states that the section “gives the highest privilege to the sharing of imaginable terrorism, homeland security, rule enforcement, and related information” and that DHS unit “must person timely entree to each applicable accusation they request to successfully execute their duties.”

(USCIS links to this memo, hosted by Homeland Security Digital Library, successful its argumentation manual section connected “privacy and confidentiality.” That link, however, is now dormant and leads to the pursuing message: “Content connected this level is being reviewed and removed to align pinch the President’s executive orders and DoD/DHS priorities. Until that reappraisal is complete, tract contented is not available.” The memo tin still beryllium accessed via the Wayback Machine. It is unclear whether DHS has updated its policies.)

When asked whether USCIS shared immoderate of Khalil’s accusation pinch HSI, a USCIS spokesperson directed The Verge to DHS. DHS did not comment.

Immigration officers person entree to a big of state, local, and national government databases, immoderate operation of which whitethorn person contained Khalil’s reside and different individual information. But ICE doesn’t needfully request to trust connected different authorities agencies for this information, since it has entree to astir Americans’ data. A 2022 Georgetown Law study recovered that ICE tin find 3 retired of 4 adults successful the US done their inferior records, and it has entree to conscionable arsenic galore people’s driver’s licenses. Almost each of this information, the report’s authors wrote, tin beryllium accessed “warrantlessly and successful secret.” ICE has entree to truthful overmuch of our information that it “now operates arsenic a home surveillance agency,” the study found.

It’s apt that each ICE needed to find Khalil was his sanction — which has been publicized a number of times by groups whose sole intent is to place and surveil pro-Palestine student activists.

“HSI is simply a blase investigative conception of ICE truthful they would beryllium tin of locating people’s addresses, possibly done accepted devices for illustration LexisNexis, if they still statement pinch ICE,” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an expert astatine the Migration Policy Institute’s US migration program, told The Verge.

One of these organizations is Canary Mission, a database that has tracked pro-Palestinian student protesters for complete a decade. Canary Mission has published the names, photos, and different identifying accusation of student activists crossed the state — including Khalil’s. Last October, the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing deliberation vessel down Project 2025, announced its ain effort to surveil anti-Israel students, which it dubbed Project Esther. After Trump’s reelection, the right-wing Zionist statement Betar said it was compiling a list of overseas critics of Israel. The statement said it shared the “names of hundreds of panic supporters” pinch the Trump administration, which it hoped would target those individuals for deportation.

In April 2024, amid protests that had taken complete Columbia’s campus, Khalil — who was successful the state connected a student visa astatine the clip — told reporters the university’s harsh consequence to the encampments made him interest astir his ineligible status. “That’s why for the past six months, I’ve hardly appeared connected the media,” Khalil said astatine a property conference. “That’s why I’m not suspended. I did not participate, fearing that I will beryllium arrested and yet deported from this country.”

While different students held down the encampments connected Columbia’s lawn, Khalil was among those negotiating pinch assemblage administrators connected the protesters’ behalf. The students’ main request was divestment: they wanted the assemblage to divest from weapons manufacturers and different companies that support Israel’s warfare connected Gaza.

Khalil’s fears didn’t subside aft he became a imperishable resident past year. In fact, Zeteo reports that Khalil asked Columbia administrators to protect him from harassment conscionable 1 time earlier his arrest. “Since yesterday, I person been subjected to a vicious, coordinated, and dehumanizing doxxing run led by Columbia affiliates Shai Davidai and David Lederer who, among others, person branded maine a information threat and called for my deportation,” Khalil wrote successful a March 7 email to Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong. His email cited a January station connected X from Betar. “He’s connected our deport list!” the group wrote of Khalil.

“I haven’t been capable to sleep, fearing that ICE aliases a vulnerable individual mightiness travel to my home,” the email read. “I urgently request ineligible support, and I impulse you to intervene and supply the basal protections to forestall further harm.”

Davidai, a professor astatine Columbia Business School, is known for harassing pro-Palestine students connected X. The assemblage temporarily suspended him from field past autumn for “repeatedly harassing and intimidating” assemblage employees. Davidai has praised Khalil’s arrest, while Lederer, an engineering student, has accused Khalil of distributing “Hamas propaganda.”

After Khalil was arrested, ICE told his woman and lawyer that he was being held astatine an ICE detention halfway successful Elizabeth, New Jersey, the AP reports. But he wasn’t location erstwhile his woman attempted to sojourn the detention installation connected March 9. As of Monday morning, Greer didn’t cognize wherever her customer was being held. ICE’s detainee locator now says Khalil is being detained astatine LaSalle detention installation successful Jena, Louisiana, a privately owned detention halfway operated by the GEO Group. Khalil’s whereabouts were first reported by Zeteo.

It’s not uncommon for ICE to transportation the group it has arrested to far-away detention centers. Setareh Ghandehari, the defense head of the Detention Watch Network, said ICE often uses transfers to “target and retaliate against activists speaking up against the migration and ICE detention system.” The remoteness of these accommodation often intends that detainees are acold from not only their friends and family but besides from attorneys and oversight groups. According to the latest Census data, little than 5,000 group unrecorded successful Jena. Meanwhile, the GEO Group’s detention halfway location tin clasp up to 1,160 people.

“The apprehension of Khalil and his consequent detention and transportation is simply a continuation of that practice,” Ghandehari told The Verge. “ICE is particularly prone to transferring group to much agrarian locations, for illustration Jena, Louisiana, that are not only acold distant from a person’s support system, but are besides difficult to access. It’s an isolation maneuver designed to punish group and make it harder for them to conflict their migration cases.”

ICE has been accused of going aft activists successful the past. In 2018, activistic Ravi Ragbir sued ICE for targeting him and different noncitizens who criticized its enforcement practices. Ragbir, the executive head of the New York City-based New Sanctuary Coalition, had been arrested during a regular ICE check-in that year. ICE settled the suit pinch Ragbir successful 2022, and the authorities gave him a three-year reprieve from deportation.

Also successful 2018, members of the Vermont-based group Migrant Justice sued DHS, claiming it had retaliated against its members by targeting them for migration enforcement aft they organized a run to protect undocumented farmworkers successful the state. The group besides sued the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, alleging that the agency systematically passed on immigrants’ backstage accusation to ICE for enforcement purposes. Vermont’s DMV settled pinch Migrant Justice successful 2020.

Immigrant defense organizations person likewise decried Khalil’s arrest, calling it a clear lawsuit of retaliation. To them, Khalil is being punished for exercising his correct to free reside successful criticizing Israel’s curen of Palestinians.

“The unlawful detention of Mr. Khalil reeks of McCarthyism,” Donna Lieberman, the executive head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said successful a statement. “It’s clear that the Trump management is selectively punishing Mr. Khalil for expressing views that aren’t MAGA-approved — which is simply a frightening escalation of Trump’s crackdown connected pro-Palestine speech, and an fierce maltreatment of migration law.”

Reports propose that Khalil is by nary intends the administration’s only target. The Student Workers of Columbia told Reuters that different student had received an email from the US consulate successful their location state saying their US visa had been revoked without giving immoderate reason. A time aft the student, who the national declined to name, received the email, 3 ICE agents entered the student’s building and tried to get into their apartment, representatives from the national told Reuters.

Khalil’s apprehension is seemingly astatine likelihood pinch Trump’s recent boasts that he’s “stopped each authorities censorship and brought backmost free reside successful America.” But it’s perfectly accordant pinch his administration’s stance connected pro-Palestine protests connected assemblage campuses. In fact, conscionable 1 time earlier Khalil’s arrest, the Trump management pulled $400 million successful backing from Columbia, claiming the assemblage had grounded to face antisemitism connected campus. “Freezing the costs is 1 of the devices we are utilizing to respond to this spike successful anti-Semitism,” Leo Terrell, the caput of the Justice Department Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, said successful a statement. “This is only the beginning.”

Others successful the management put it much bluntly. “SHALOM, MAHMOUD,” the charismatic White House relationship posted connected X. On TruthSocial, Trump promised location would beryllium more: “This is the first apprehension of galore to come.”