Freed from jail, Columbia University activist seizes his new platform

New Straits Times

07-07-2025

United States President Donald Trump's fight with elite American universities was only a few days old when federal immigration agents arrested the Palestinian student activist at his Columbia University apartment building in New York in March.
During the three months Khalil was held at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana, the Trump administration escalated its battle.
The administration also arrested other foreign pro-Palestinian students.
It revoked billions of dollars in research grants to Columbia, Harvard and other private schools.
These campuses had been embroiled in the growing student protest movement — a movement in which Khalil played a prominent role.
ADVERTISING
"I absolutely don't regret standing up against a genocide," Khalil, 30, said in an interview at his Manhattan apartment, less than two weeks after US district judge Michael Farbiarz ordered him released on bail while he challenges the effort to revoke his permanent residency green card and deport him.
He believes the government is trying to silence him, but has instead given him a bigger platform.
Returning to New York after his release, Khalil was welcomed at the airport by US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a political foe of Trump.
Supporters waved Palestinian flags as he reunited with his wife and infant son, whose birth he missed in jail.
Two days later, he was the star of a rally on the steps of a cathedral near Columbia's Manhattan campus, castigating the university's leaders.
"I did not choose to be in this position: ICE did," Khalil said, referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who arrested him.
He missed his May graduation ceremony and emerged from jail unemployed. The government could win its appeal and jail him again, so Khalil said his priority is spending as much time as possible with his son and wife, a dentist.
Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria; his wife, Dr Noor Abdalla, is a US citizen and he became a US lawful permanent resident last year.
Khalil moved to New York in 2022 to begin graduate studies.
He soon became a key student negotiator between Columbia's administration and protesters.
The demonstrators set up tent encampments on campus, demanding the university divest its US$14 billion endowment from weapons manufacturers and companies supporting Israel's military.
Khalil has not been charged with any crime.
However, the US government is invoking an obscure immigration statute.
It argues that Khalil and other international pro-Palestinian students should be deported because their "otherwise lawful" speech could harm US foreign policy interests.
The federal judge overseeing the case has ruled that the Trump administration's main rationale for deporting Khalil is likely an unconstitutional violation of free-speech rights. The government is appealing.
Khalil, in the interview, condemned anti-Semitism and called Jewish students an "integral part" of the protest movement.
He said the government was using anti-Semitism as a pretext to reshape American higher education, which Trump, a Republican, has said is captured by anti-American, Marxist and "radical left" ideologies.
The Trump administration has warned Columbia and other universities that federal research grants — mostly for biomedical work — will not be restored unless the government is given more oversight.
This includes control over admissions, hiring and academic content.
The administration says this is necessary to ensure intellectual diversity.
Unlike Harvard, Columbia has not challenged the legality of the grant revocations.
The university has agreed to at least some of the Trump administration's demands.
He urged Columbia and other universities targeted by Trump to heed their students.