Jewish American activists took over the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Thursday afternoon to demand the release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who faces deportation for protesting Israel’s war on Gaza.
New York police have arrested about 100 protesters calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist and a recent Columbia University graduate.
The arrests were made at Trump Tower in Midtown on Thursday afternoon after hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the lobby to protest the arrest of Khalil.
At least 98 have been arrested while approximately fifty protesters were escorted from the lobby of Trump Tower in zip ties and placed into police vehicles.
Video showed officers handcuffing some of the demonstrators.
Khalil is currently in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University.
A federal judge intervened to halt the deportation efforts against Khalil, who possesses a green card. Thousands have signed a petition advocating for his release.
Lawsuit on behalf of Khalil filed
The arrests and protests come as Columbia University is now facing a federal lawsuit following the arrest of Khalil.
The lawsuit, filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the university illegally disclosed the records of thousands of students at the request of Congress.
"This lawsuit challenges the House committee's illegal efforts to get disciplinary records, but it also challenges Columbia University's willingness to become an appendage of the government," said CAIR's Kadir Abbas.
Khalil and seven Columbia students asked a federal court to block the school from producing student disciplinary records to a House committee that demanded them last month.
The committee’s request and the school’s compliance with it would violate the First Amendment rights of Khalil and the students and the university’s obligation to protect student privacy, the lawsuit said.
“Columbia University’s apparent willingness to comply with the Congressional request to disclose private student records sets a dangerous precedent that undermines academic freedom and student privacy,” CAIR said in a statement.
“Our lawsuit seeks to protect the constitutional rights of students who should not be subjected to political intimidation or invasive government overreach. We will continue to fight for the privacy and dignity of all students,” CAIR said.
“We’re witnessing an escalation of longstanding tactics to suppress speech in support of Palestinian human rights. This case aims to prevent Columbia from turning into an arm of the federal government and do its bidding of suppressing speech it doesn’t like,” it added.
“No student should fear that their private information will be handed over to politicians who seek to punish advocacy for Palestinian human rights. This legal action is a necessary step to push back against efforts to silence and surveil students exercising their First Amendment rights,” it stated.
“Targeting student activists under the guise of federal investigations is a blatant attempt to suppress voices advocating for Palestinian rights. Institutions of higher learning must resist external pressures that threaten free expression and academic inquiry.”
The seven current Columbia University students also asked the court to allow them to proceed anonymously.
Last month, the House Committee on Education and Workforce sent a letter to Columbia’s interim president Dr. Katrina Armstrong, and the university board chairs, David Greenwald and Claire Shipman, claiming that “numerous antisemitic incidents” had taken place.
It demanded disciplinary records connected to 11 incidents dating to the previous school year, including the student “takeover and occupation” of Hamilton Hall last April.
Khalil, a recent Colombia graduate and a Syrian-born Palestinian refugee, was detained on Saturday for his involvement in leading solidarity protests supporting Palestinians against Israel's genocide in Gaza.
His activism, which includes negotiating with university officials during protests advocating for Palestinian rights, has put him at the center of a political storm.
On Sunday, the Trump administration transferred Khalil from a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail in Elizabeth, New Jersey, near Manhattan, to a jail in rural Jena, Louisiana, about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away.
