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On Mar. 8, 2025, the Trump administration arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian student activist at Columbia University. Federal agents arrived at Khalil’s building lobby claiming the U.S. Department of State had revoked his student visa and that he was being deported. When he told the agents he is a permanent legal resident with a green card, the agents told him that status had also been revoked.

Green-card holders are generally not deported unless they have been convicted of a serious crime. Khalil has been neither charged nor convicted and instead faces deportation over vague accusations of antisemitism. On Mar. 11, a federal judge in New York temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation. 

Trump has promised Khalil is only the first of many such arrests and has also pledged to target campuses. The U.S. Department of Education also announced a list of 60 universities that are under investigation over antisemitism.

Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American civil rights attorney and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about what the dangerous and unconstitutional attack on Khalil represents.