The ICE arrest of student activist Mahmoud Khalil
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil helped organize protests at the university against the Israel-Gaza war last spring. Khalil, who is a legal permanent resident of the United States, according to his lawyers, was detained over the weekend by immigration officers was detained by immigration officers and accused by the Trump administration of sympathizing with Hamas terrorists. So far no evidence of this has been reported.
Immigration reporter Maria Sacchetti speaks with host Colby Itkowitz about Khalil’s arrest and what it could signal about how this administration will treat activists and immigrants.
Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy, with help from Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sam Bair. Thanks also to Jenna Johnson.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On Saturday night, Mahmoud Khalil was returning home from a friend's house in New York. |
| 0:07.0 | He was with his wife, who was eight months pregnant with their first child. |
| 0:11.0 | They were in the lobby of their Columbia University apartment when they were approached by a group of men in plain clothes. |
| 0:19.1 | The men were working with ICE, immigration and customs enforcement. |
| 0:23.8 | They told Khalil they'd come to arrest him. |
| 0:26.8 | Despite his wife's pleas that he's a legal resident of the United States, they took him away. |
| 0:43.1 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 0:44.7 | I'm Kolby Ickowitz. |
| 0:47.1 | It's Tuesday, March 11th. |
| 0:55.3 | Today, we're looking at the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student and pro-Ghasa activist. |
| 1:00.8 | I'm sitting down with immigration reporter Maria Soketti to talk about Khalil's arrest and the accusations by the Trump administration that he sympathized with Hamas terrorists. |
| 1:06.0 | We'll talk about why legal experts are worried about what this signals for immigration enforcement and free speech. |
| 1:34.0 | So, Maria, tell me more about the man that ICE detained over the weekend, |
| 1:35.2 | Mokmoud Khalio. |
| 1:38.2 | What do we know about him and his life prior to his arrest? |
| 1:42.0 | What we knew first about him is that he was a student protester. |
| 1:48.9 | This encampment is a minor inconvenience compared to the generational shaping events taking place now in Gaza. |
| 1:51.4 | He was someone who was a public figure on campus. |
| 1:54.8 | He would negotiate with campus officials. |
| 1:57.6 | He would protest U.S. involvement in the war between Israel and Hamas. He would |
| 2:02.9 | protest the deaths of thousands of Palestinians. He was someone who felt compelled as a Palestinian, |
| 2:10.9 | though he was raised in Syria, to really speak up for people who were being killed. And that is how he first comes to the attention of Columbia University, where he's a graduate |
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