Democrats are deeply conflicted over the Trump administration’s arrest of a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University who faces deportation for his prominent role in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

Senate and House Democrats have condemned the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil as a violation of his First Amendment rights to protest — but have tempered their criticism to avoid supporting campus protests that at times featured harassment and assault of Jewish students.

They are also being careful to condemn Hamas, which attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250, and prompting an Israeli response that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza, including many civilians.

“I abhor many of the opinions and policies that Mahmoud Khalil holds and supports, and have made my criticism of the antisemitic actions at Columbia loudly known,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a post to X on Tuesday.

But the New York Democrat challenged the Trump administration, which has called Khalil a supporter of Hamas, to justify his arrest by immigration agents outside his New York apartment over the weekend.

“If the administration cannot prove he has violated any criminal law to justify taking this severe action and is doing it for the opinions he has expressed, then that is wrong, they are violating the First Amendment protections we all enjoy and should drop their wrongheaded action.”

Khalil is a Palestinian from Syria who entered the U.S. on a student visa and had obtained legal permanent residency, commonly referred to as a green card. His wife, an American citizen, is eight months pregnant, his lawyers said in court papers.

President Donald Trump, who has said he wants to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses, celebrated the arrest in a social media post, saying it was “the first of many to come.”

A federal judge halted the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Khalil on Monday, and scheduled a hearing on the case for Wednesday.

Schumer’s statement echoed a similar one from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries released Monday.

“To the extent his actions were inconsistent with Columbia University policy and created an unacceptable hostile academic environment for Jewish students and others, there is a serious university disciplinary process that can handle the matter,” Jeffries wrote. “Absent evidence of a crime, such as providing material support for a terrorist organization, the actions undertaken by the Trump administration are wildly inconsistent with the United States Constitution.”

Other prominent Democrats are similarly wrestling with the arrest. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state said he had concerns about some of the campus protests that erupted around the nation after the Oct. 7 attack. But he noted in a social media post that “Khalil committed no crime” and “shouldn’t be locked up for expressing his political views.”

A small number of Democratic representatives have taken a less nuanced view, demanding Khalil’s release while expressing support for the pro-Palestinian movement in a letter sent Tuesday to Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“We must be extremely clear: this is an attempt to criminalize political protest and is a direct assault on the freedom of speech of everyone in this country,” said the letter, whose signatories include Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. “Khalil’s arrest is an act of anti-Palestinian racism intended to silence the Palestinian solidarity movement in this country.”

Other Democratic House members to sign the letter include Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, New York Rep. Nydia Velázquez, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Ohmar and Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress, was censured for her comments about the Israel-Hamas war in November of 2023. Ohmar was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2023 for remarks she previously made denouncing the Israeli government.