Donald Trump claimed credit for the arrest of a Palestinian activist who helped organize Columbia University protests against Israel and warned that was only the beginning.
Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until this past December, was taken into custody Saturday night at his university-owned apartment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and Trump confirmed the order to arrest came directly from him.
"Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University," Trump posted on Truth Social. "This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it."
Trump had threatened earlier this month to stop federal funding for universities that allow "illegal" protests and warned that "agitators" would be "imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came."
ALSO READ: 'A lot of damage control' at the White House after Musk blow-up: MSNBC's Lemire
"Many are not students, they are paid agitators," Trump posted after Khalil's arrest. "We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again. If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply. Thank you!"
The Syrian-born Khalil was in the U.S. as a permanent resident with a green card, but his lawyer said ICE agents said they were revoking his permanent resident card and threatened to arrest his wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant.
Records indicate Khalil was taken to an immigration holding facility in New Jersey and then to a facility in Louisiana.
