Mahmoud Khalil, who attended Columbia University, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over his pro-Palestine activism, despite not being charged with a crime and having a green card which grants him the right to live and work in the US.
ICE claimed it was acting on State Department orders, but the department hasn’t been given the authority to remove green card holders, and Judge Jesse Furman has prevented Homeland Security from deporting Khalil whilst his case is under review.
ICE has reportedly used aliases and shell companies to target activists in the past, and the use of such tactics is a “continuation of that practice”, according to advocacy group Detention Watch Network.
pundit Shai Bannon praised the move on social media and wrote: “This is the first arrest of many to come.