Trump's Trials - Federal judge halts deportation of pro-Palestinian activist arrested by ICE

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

Hear an update on Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student and protest leader arrested by ICE over the weekend. A federal judge has halted his deportation. Support NPR and hear every episode sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detro and you're listening to Trump's terms from NPR. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. It's going to be a very aggressive first hundred days of the new Congress. An unpredictable and transformative next four years. The United States is going to take off like a rocket ship. Each episode we bring you the latest news about the 47th president and the policy changes he is pursuing on his own terms. We know from experience that means challenging precedent, busting norms, and pushing against

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Visit WISE.com. TNCs apply. I'm Steve Inskeep, a federal judge in New York ordered the government not to deport a college protest leader who was arrested by immigration officers over the weekend. Mahmoud Khalil is a lawful permanent resident of the United States, a recent graduate

of Columbia University. He was sent to an attention center in Louisiana to await deportation after his arrest at his university housing on Saturday. And Piers, Rylan Barton has been following the story and joins us now. Good morning. Good morning. I'm just getting my brain around the idea that he was taken out of New York and taken

all the way to Louisiana. So what else is going on here? Right. So Khalil's attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court in New York. They're challenging his arrest. And we now know there will be a hearing on that on Wednesday. As you said, he's still in detention in Louisiana. His lawyers are trying to get him back to New York.

They say that his transfer down there undermines his ability to access legal counsel and his family. President Trump wrote on social media that Halil's arrest was the first arrest of many to come. He said there are students at Columbia and other universities engaged in quote, pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity. Khalil's attorneys say the Trump administration is using him as an example to stifle lawful dissent, which violates the First Amendment. Khalil'sil's wife who's pregnant also issued a statement asking

for help to bring him back home. Uh, she described him as a loving husband and the future father of their baby and someone who's always willing to stand up for the oppressed. Since you brought up the first amendment, what does the law say about how that applies specifically to a green card holder and how does all that match up with the facts of this case? So green card holders have many of the same protections that US citizens have, but they can be deported

for certain reasons, committing crimes, not updating immigration officials on their whereabouts, for example. The administration says that since Khalil was one of the student leaders active in those protests, opposing Israel's war with Hamas and Gaza, he violated the administration's ban on anti-Semitism and supported a group considered

to be a terrorist organization by the U.S. and that's grounds for deportation to them. Trump officials have made several statements about this over the week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that the administration would revoke the visas or green cards of Hamas supporters so that they can be deported. How does this fit with the larger policies of the administration? The US Education Department I know is telling dozens of universities they're under investigation for antisemitism as the administration sees it.

Right, the department's new secretary, Linda McMahon, told 60 colleges and universities they could lose funding depending on the outcome of investigations they've launched into antisemitism on their campuses. This letter they sent out to them also warned that they could lose federal funding if they don't do more to combat anti-Semitism. This list includes a wide range of Ivy League schools like Yale, state schools like Arizona State, small liberal arts colleges like Middlebury College in Vermont, and it comes after the administration cancelled almost $400 million in federal funding

for Columbia University, accusing it of allowing persistent harassment of Jewish students. NPR's Rylan Barton, thanks so much. Thank you. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without

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