Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian Columbia University student leader of protests on the campus last year who was detained by ICE this weekend at the orders of the Trump Administration, will temporarily remain in custody, his legal team announced on Wednesday afternoon.
The March 12 hearing began with a chaotic scene outside the courthouse at 40 Centre St., where journalists and Khalil’s supporters lined up to gain entry to the hearing, which many believed would determine his future.
As hundreds of demonstrators began to pour into the area across from Foley Square, several protesters looked to block the press from seeing one female supporter. While it is unclear who she is, they used scarves and umbrellas to obscure the view while also swatting at cameras. When they were permitted inside, they used their bare hands to conceal her face.
Khalil also saw celebrity support in the form of actress Susan Sarandon, who appeared front and center to attend the hearing, and said the case was about the future of the First Amendment.
“Freedom of speech is something that affects all of us…freedom of speech is an issue; it is a right that we all have, and this is a turning point in this history and freedom of this country,” Sarandon said.
A sea of New Yorkers looked to show their support for Khalil, who ICE took into custody at his university apartment on Saturday night despite having a legal green card. In the shadow of the courthouse, they held signs reading “Free Mahmoud Khalil.”
While the White House is accusing Khalil of spreading terroristic ideals through pro-Hamas rhetoric, many Americans have argued that his detainment is an unconstitutional attack on free speech akin to that of Nazi Germany. Khalil served as a negotiator during the protests on Columbia’s campus last year.
Despite the wide show of support, the hearing itself yielded very little resolution. Khalil is expected to remain in ICE custody in Louisiana as Judge Jesse Furman mulls over arguments made by government lawyers and his extensive legal team.
“What happened to Mahmoud Khalil is nothing short of extraordinary and shocking and outrageous, which would outrage anybody who believes that speech should be free in the United States of America,” Ramzi Kassem said. “Every day that Mahmoud spends in detention in Louisiana is a day too long.”
A lawyer for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is calling for the proceedings to be moved to a different jurisdiction, however, given Khalil’s current location that would make the matter fall into New Jersey.
Khalil’s attorneys are petitioning him to be returned to New York.
“The United States government has taken the position that it can arrest, detain and seek to deport a lawful permanent president exclusively because of his peaceful, constitutionally protected activism,“ Baher Azmy, a member of Khalil’s legal team said. “We will be fighting in the courts and fighting in the streets to bring Mahmoud home and prevent this level of repression from spreading to many others, as the administration has threatened to do.”
While the protests themselves remained peaceful, one man was arrested after he grabbed and threw the hat of an agitator waving a Trump flag in the faces of protesters.
