On March 8, 2025, Mahmoud Khalil, a Ph.D. student at Columbia University and permanent U.S. resident, was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). When immigration officers detained him, they cited his pro-Palestinian activism as the reason and told him his green card had been revoked.
It was 24 hours before his pregnant wife—who is a U.S. citizen—and his lawyer were told where Mahmoud was. He is now being held in a for-profit detention center in Louisiana, far from his home and family. A federal judge has intervened, ordering that Mahmoud could not be deported while a petition for his release was pending.
Mahmoud’s case is not isolated. Since his arrest, several university students who have voiced support for Palestinian rights have been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Some have had their student visas revoked, have been detained, and now face deportation. Among them are Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national, Fulbright Scholar, and doctoral student at Tufts University. At least one other student, Yunseo Chung, has had her green card revoked. Yunseo is a Columbia University student and permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. since she was seven.
The detention of these students should concern anyone who cares about free speech, due process, and civil liberties. Mahmoud was targeted for serving as a negotiator and spokesperson for students protesting Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Yunseo was targeted for deportation after participating in a student protest. And Rumeysa was the co-author of a student op-ed urging Tufts to divest from Israel.
The detention of these students should also concern anyone who cares about immigrant rights. Mahmoud and Yunseo are permanent residents, and their free speech and political activism are protected by law. A green card cannot simply be revoked for political reasons. Efforts to deport these individuals without due process are just one piece of the Trump administration’s larger attack on migrant communities.
The Trump administration is systematically dismantling legal protections for immigrants. It has dramatically expanded detention and deportations across the country, with agents targeting people simply based on racial and ethnic profiling. The administration is now imprisoning people in Guantanamo Bay based on unproven allegations without access to legal counsel. It is also rapidly constructing massive new detention centers to hold tens of thousands more people—part of a broader plan remove millions of people from our communities, separating families, friends, and neighbors.
Mahmoud—and all of these students—should be safe at home in their communities, not in jail cells or living in fear of deportation. But the Trump administration has publicly hailed these arrests and promised more to come.
These cases should set off alarms for everyone, regardless of your stance on Palestine, immigration, or student protests. At stake are fundamental principles: free speech, due process, and constitutional rights. If Mahmoud and other students exercising these rights are not safe, none of us are. If free speech and political beliefs can be turned against them, the rights of all people who disagree with the Trump administration are at risk. If Mahmoud’s residency rights can be stripped away without due process simply because of his political beliefs and actions, the residency rights of all people in the U.S. are at risk.
We cannot remain silent in the face of these attacks. If we do not act now, we send a message that we are willing to accept these risks. We condemn Mahmoud and many others to the unmitigated cruelty of a system that punishes those who seek justice.
And many, many people are not staying silent. Since Mahmoud’s detention, millions of people have signed a petition demanding his release. Protests have sprung up across the country. Several members of Congress have sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to call for his release.
AFSC joins with millions calling for freedom for Mahmoud and all who face persecution for speaking out against injustice. We will continue to work in solidarity with student movements and activists across the country to demand an end to detention and deportation at home and an end to genocide and occupation in Palestine and across the globe.
