Pro-Palestine Protests

Another pro-Palestinian Columbia University student and U.S. green card holder was detained by federal agents as he arrived for a citizenship appointment Monday.

Mohsen Mahdawi, a permanent resident in the U.S. for 10 years, was one of the leading voices of protests on the New York City campus in the early months of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil can be kicked out of the U.S. as a national security risk, an immigration judge in Louisiana found Friday during a hearing over the legality of deporting the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

The government’s contention that Khalil’s presence in the United States posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation, Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans said at the conclusion of a hearing in Jena.

A US judge has ruled the Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate detained last month over his role in pro-Palestinian protests.

Mr Khalil, a permanent legal US resident, has not been charged with a crime. In a letter written from the facility, he has said his "arrest was a direct consequence" of speaking out for Palestinian rights.

The government has cited a Cold War-era immigration law, declaring that his presence in the US was adverse to American foreign policy interests.

A U.S. immigration judge in Louisiana ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration can move forward with deportation proceedings against Mahmoud Khalil.

The Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist’s case has become a flashpoint in the national debate over student protests and immigration policy. Judge James Comans at the LaSalle Immigration Court ruled that Khalil is removable under U.S. immigration law.

The federal government outlined evidence to support Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation order in a newly-released, two-page memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The memo says the Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate is deportable because of his “beliefs, statements or associations” that would compromise US foreign policy interests. It was submitted Wednesday in response to a request from an immigration judge for evidence to support Khalil’s deportation case.

The Trump administration has begun a new wave of visa revocations for international students studying at American universities.

Universities across America said over the weekend that the visas of several international students were revoked. It's unclear if the visa revocations are associated with anti-Israel actions by the affected international students.

The Harvard International Office announced Sunday that three students and two recent graduates from the university have had their student visas revoked amid the Trump administration’s crackdown.

The office did not release the students’ names and said it has referred them to legal counsel. The reasoning for the revocation is unknown, but the office said it was made during a routine records review. 

Colleges around the country are reporting some of their international students’ visas are being revoked unexpectedly, expressing alarm over what appears to be a new level of government scrutiny.

Visas can be canceled for a number of reasons, but college leaders say the government has been quietly terminating students’ legal residency status with little notice to students or schools. That marks a shift from past practice and leaves students vulnerable to detention and deportation.

The Trump administration plans on halting $510 million of federal grants to Brown University because of the administration’s alleged failure to address campus antisemitism and their continuation of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Brown University is set to become the latest Ivy League university to have its funds halted over its campus antisemitism, joining a list that includes Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. government plans to freeze grants to Brown University and separately set conditions that Harvard University must meet - including a mask ban and removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programs - to receive federal money.