WASHINGTON, 20 August. - (ANA) - US President Donald Trump's administration continues to punish leaders of protests in universities against Israel's genocide of Gaza.

 

In March 2025, Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, of Palestinian origin and born in Syria, was returning to his university accommodation after having iftar with his wife, who was in the late stages of pregnancy.

 

When they arrived, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were waiting to arrest him.

 

Mahmoud Khalil is one of four researchers described as "leaders" of the movement across universities calling for an end to the Israeli genocide of the Gaza Strip and an end to US universities' investments in Israel.

 

The Trump administration seeks to currently deport three of the four, at times alleging links to terrorism and at others claiming that they threaten US relations with Israel.

 

The three under threat are Palestinian Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student in New York state; Palestinian Mohsen al-Mahdawi, also a Columbia University student; and Indian national Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University student in Washington.

 

They are experiencing successes and setbacks in cases being heard by US courts without a final decision.

 

The fourth, Turkish doctoral researcher at Tufts University Rumeysa Ozturk, chose to end her case herself and left the country for fear of being arrested again.

 

Legal experts and activists said the Trump administration's targeting of the four people for deportation violates freedom of speech and expression, in a precedent not seen since the 1950s, when the United States deported three people because of their previous affiliation with the Communist Party.

 

Since then, no US administration had deported people based on political affiliation, except during President Ronald Reagan's term in the 1980s, when eight pro-Palestinian protesters were deported.

 

Rulings in the cases of activists in the pro-Gaza university movement will impact about 13 million US permanent residents, as well as other visa holders.

 

They could also result in further restrictions on freedoms and pave the way for a two-tier system of freedoms in the United States: one level for citizens and a lower level for non-citizens.

 

When Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident married to US citizen Noor Abdalla, was arrested, immigration enforcement forces transferred him from New York state to a detention centre in Louisiana, where he remained for more than 100 days.

 

The authorities relied on a rarely used provision of law that allows foreigners to be deported if the Secretary of State determines that their presence harms US foreign relations.

 

The Trump administration accused Khalil of terrorism and explicitly said it was seeking to deport him because of his positions against Israel.

 

With two cases pending, one federal case concerning his right to freedom of expression and another related to his immigration status in the United States, a federal judge in New Jersey ordered his release.

 

However, a federal appeals court ruled in January that he must first exhaust immigration court proceedings before turning to the federal courts, prompting him to seek an appeal before the Supreme Court, the country's highest judicial authority.

 

Khalil's case became more complicated when the Board of Immigration Appeals issued a final order for his deportation in April.

 

The board is under the authority of the US attorney general and is not part of the judiciary. All but two of its 19 judges were appointed by attorneys general in Republican administrations.

 

Khalil's lawyers, however, filed a petition with a federal appeals court to review and overturn the board's ruling, arguing that the Trump administration issued the decision as political retaliation, bypassed official channels for filing and adjudicating immigration appeals, and issued its decision within nine days, which they described as "unprecedented."

 

Khalil's lawyers succeeded in obtaining a ruling from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that their client could not be detained or deported from the US, where his wife and son live, until his appeals against other judicial decisions are resolved.

 

The case is similar to that of another Palestinian, Mohsen al-Mahdawi. Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and moved to the United States about 10 years ago. He is a researcher at Columbia University and holds US permanent residency, known as a green card.

 

The Trump administration arrested Mahdawi in April 2025 inside a federal building where he had gone for an interview related to his application for US citizenship. He left the building in handcuffs, raising a victory sign.

 

He was also one of the most prominent faces at Columbia University protests calling for an end to Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people.

 

He was targeted because he participated in the events, and his legal team succeeded in securing his swift release and blocking attempts to deport him following a ruling by an immigration court in Vermont.

 

This came before the Trump administration removed Judge Nina Fares, who had issued the decision.

 

Meanwhile, the administration's immigration authorities are pursuing another case before a federal appeals court, whose judges were all appointed by Republican presidents.

 

In July, the court overturned the previous judicial ruling that prevented the Trump administration from detaining Mahdawi and ruled that the decision to release him lacked jurisdiction.

 

Mahdawi's position became more complicated when Judge Angela Monson, who was appointed during Trump's first term, took over his case instead of Judge Nina Fares, who had released him.

 

In June 2025, Monson issued an order for his deportation to Jordan.

 

The decision remains suspended as his legal team appeals before a federal appeals court and seeks to prove that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment to the US Constitution and is exploiting immigration laws to retaliate against him because of his political views.

 

Georgetown University doctoral researcher Badar Khan Suri was arrested outside his home in March 2025.

 

The government revoked his visa and sought to deport him.

 

His wife, Mefaz Saleh, is a US citizen of Palestinian origin who was born in the United States and moved to the Gaza Strip at the age of five.

 

Her father, who lived in the United States for about two decades, previously worked as an adviser to the late Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh.

 

The Trump administration detained Suri in Texas before a federal judge released him in May 2025.

 

In July, a Virginia appeals court rejected new efforts by the Trump administration to detain or deport him, ruling that he was being unlawfully targeted based on his wife's family's political background rather than a crime he had committed.

 

It affirmed the constitutional right of non-citizens to challenge their detention before federal courts.

 

The ruling caused a major split among judicial circuits, increasing the likelihood that the case will reach the Supreme Court.

 

Issam Barai, director of programmes at the Centre for Democracy at Cornell University, told The New Arab, "These cases represent a major struggle taking place between the elite, the authorities and the American grassroots."

 

"This is indicated by two factors. The first is the continuation of the policy of suppressing freedoms regarding the Palestinian issue, which is an established US policy," he said. "The key officials in the current administration are imbued with a racist ideology against Arabs and Muslims in general."

 

"The second indicator is that there have been attempts to suppress freedom of expression for years within the academic community when it comes to the Palestine issue," he added. "But this time, we are seeing the mobilisation of the state and its institutions against individuals and researchers simply for supporting Palestine and an attempt to retaliate against them or deport them outside the country."

 

"This is aimed at eliminating any future attempts similar to the US university movement for Gaza in 2023 and 2024," Barai concluded.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/20 August 2026 - - -