The Trump administration has not been subtle about its intentions. A White House official, speaking anonymously to the Free Press, told the right-leaning media organization that Khalil’s arrest would be a “blueprint” for other actions.

Whatever legal rationale the Trump Administration cooks up, deporting protesters for things they say is wildly un-American—and possibly unpopular, too.

Trying to deport Khalil for demonstrating against Israel is an obvious violation of his rights and an attempt to intimidate others, they say.

NEW YORK (AP) — Handcuffed and shackled, Mahmoud Khalil was rushed from New York to Louisiana last weekend in a manner that left the outspoken Columbia University graduate student feeling like he was being kidnapped, his lawyers wrote in an updated lawsuit seeking his immediate release.

Nearly 100 people were arrested after protesters gathered at Trump Tower in Manhattan Thursday to denounce the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist detained by ICE over his involvement with pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University.

Police arrested nearly 100 protesters demanding the release of Syrian national Mahmoud Khalil during a sit-in protest at Trump Tower in Manhattan on Thursday.

I was a student at Columbia University, where I covered tense campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war for the college newspaper and for POLITICO. So I’m familiar with Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student who I’ve chatted with in the past and appears to be the first target of the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on student protesters.

Noor Abdalla, wife of detained Palestinian Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, says she thought her husband didn't have to worry about ICE.

Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil filed an amended petition and complaint Thursday that names President Donald Trump as a respondent as the Palestinian activist challenges his attempted deportation for taking part in protests against the war in Gaza.