Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan Wednesday to demand the release of pro-Hamas organizer Mahmoud Khalil, whose arrest over the weekend has agitated fellow leftists.
Khalil, a Syrian student at Columbia, had his green card revoked by the Trump administration after he allegedly organized pro-Hamas protests at the university that were hostile toward Jews and called for the destruction of Western civilization.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Senate Judiciary Republicans all voiced their support for the move this week as information about Khalil’s Islamic and Marxist radicalism came to light.
Khalil’s group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), was one of over 150 pro-terrorism organizations investigated by journalist Ryan Mauro for an extensive Capitol Research Center report last year.
As Mauro pointed out on X, CUAD openly states it is “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” and asks for help from “militants” abroad to help them “fight against the tyranny and domination which undergird the imperialist world order.”
In another post, Khalil’s group urges fellow Islamists to engage in an “intifada” against “American imperialism” in Bangladesh “just as the Palestinian resistance escalated the intifada on Oct 7.”
CUAD recommended “battling fascist agitators by dismantling state infrastructure” and “confronting military & police en masse.”
Khalil’s group also calls on fellow travelers to storm prisons and release prisoners, as well as burn down prisons, government offices and state vehicles as “the only way to respond to state repression.”
CUAD states that it is crucial to learn from the violent extremists in Bangladesh that overthrew the government there and considers itself as part of an insurgency in the U.S. that will fight “until the empire crumbles.”
According to Mauro’s report, CUAD intends to get guidance from its Bangladeshi “comrades” Jamaat-e-Islami, the Islamist group that overthrew the government as part of an alleged “Global Intifada.”
Jamaat-e-Islami “has been linked to Hamas and is described as Southeast Asia’s counterpart to the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas’s parent org),” Mauro says.
Khalil’s group allegedly frequently advocates for vandalism and property destruction, such as spray painting graffiti on campus.
CUAD also supports arsonist Casey Goonan who is currently incarcerated in California for firebombing a police car.
The group shared an Instagram post calling for Goonan to be freed, saying “Resistance is love” and “Glory to all our martyrs,” adorned with flames.
CUAD endorsed Goonan’s terrorism targeting campus and police property as a “rational action of targeting state infrastructure,” according to Mauro:
The effort to equate American police with Israeli police is also an indirect call to attack them since Khalil’s group and its allies support targeting Israeli police.
This is part of a publicly acknowledged effort by the seditionist groups to merge their cause with a broader “insurgency” against law enforcement by exploiting issues surrounding race and police misconduct.
The objective is to preserve & expand their infrastructure by joining the anti-police cause so it does not fade away when hating Israel becomes less of an issue.
Khalil’s group directly states its intention to “grow” the terrorist campaign against “state violence.”
The goal isn’t to just destroy Israel. It’s to “topple all institutions profiting from colonial, racial capitalism.”
Here again, Khalil’s group calls for a repeat of the October 7 attacks on U.S. soil.
It says to “look to the tactics” of the “Palestinian resistance for inspired actions.” It says to “rise” “like a flood.”
The reference to a “flood” would be unmistakable to his comrades: The October 7 attacks that Hamas named “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”
Khalil’s group has allegedly endorsed an attempted firebombing of a federal building in Oakland, the torching of a campus building, the looting of a campus supply building, and setting fire to a construction site on campus.
CUAD, according to Mauro’s report, also has ties to the Chinese Communist Party through a CCP front called People’s Forum.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the decision to deport the radical Wednesday, saying that there is no inherent right for any foreigner, least of all a Hamas supporter, to have a green card.
“When you come to the United States as a visitor – which is what a visa is, which is how this individual entered this country, on a visitor’s visa, okay – you are here as a visitor,” Rubio told reporters during a press conference in Ireland Wednesday.
We can deny you that visa. We can deny you that – if you tell us when you apply, “Hi, I’m trying to get into the United States on a student visa, I am a big supporter of Hamas, a murderous, barbaric group that kidnaps children, that rapes teenage girls, that takes hostages, that allows them to die in captivity, that returns more bodies than live hostages” – if you tell us that you are in favor of a group like this, and if you tell us when you apply for your visa, “And by the way, I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, anti-Semitic activities, I intend to shut down your universities” – if you told us all these things when you applied for a visa, we would deny your visa. I hope we would. If you actually end up doing that once you’re in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it. And if you end up having a green card – not citizenship but a green card – as a result of that visa while you’re here and those activities, we’re going to kick you out. It’s as simple as that.
This is not about free speech. This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way. So when you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason, but I think being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down and being complicit in what are clearly crimes of vandalization, complicit in shutting down learning institutions – there are kids at these schools that can’t go to class. You pay all this money to these high-priced schools that are supposed to be of great esteem and you can’t even go to class, you’re afraid to go to class because these lunatics are running around with covers on their face, screaming terrifying things. If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in. And if you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also defended the administration’s move, telling reporters on Tuesday “if you’re on a student visa, and you’re in America and you’re an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, you’re going home.” The speaker added: “We’re going to arrest your tail. We’re going to send you home where you belong.”
Johnson said he had the misfortune of being in the midst of one of the pro-Hamas demonstrations when he visited Columbia last year, calling the protest “dangerous” and an “angry mob.” The speaker pointed out that Jewish students were instructed not to go to class during the protests “for fear of their physical safety.”
He described Khalil as a “mastermind” behind the Columbia intimidating demonstrations.
“This is far beyond the pale … when you are threatening your classmates and spewing antisemitism and all this hatred, it’s enough,” said Johnson. “I think the American people understand that and they’re supporting that.”
Senate Judiciary Republicans also weighed in on X, Wednesday, saying “reports overwhelmingly indicate Mahmoud Khalil is a Hamas sympathizer who espouses violent, anti-American views.” The Senate GOP X account slammed Democrats for defending the anti-American radical.
“Khalil is a senior activist for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) student organization,” the Senate Republicans wrote. “He was CUAD’s ‘lead negotiator’ during the @Columbia protests, which caused multiple injuries, property damage and rampant harassment of Jewish students.”
The Judiciary Republicans also noted that Khalil’s CUAD group “has called for the ‘total eradication of Western civilization’” and publicly supported arsonist Casey Goonan.
“Goonan is accused of lighting a police car on fire at UC Berkely in protest of the U.S.’s support for Israel’s military operations,” they explained.
“By all accounts, Khalil has stoked hatred for America and actively supported a group that foments violence and destruction on U.S. soil. Yet, Democrats continue to stand by him,” the Senate Republicans said.
US District Judge Jesse Furman on Monday temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation while the court considers a legal challenge brought by his lawyers. The judge ruled on Wednesday that Khalil and his lawyers may have one phone call on Wednesday and another on Thursday, covered by attorney-client privilege.
Khalil will remain detained in an immigration detention center in Louisiana until at least next week.
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