NEW YORK (AP) — A Palestinian activist who helped lead student protests at Columbia University faces deportation after being arrested over the weekend by federal immigration officials.

President Donald Trump has warned that the apprehension of Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident, represents the “first arrest of many” as his administration cracks down on campus opposition to the war in Gaza. But a federal judge temporarily blocked the 30 year old’s expulsion from the country.

What happened?

Khalil was detained Saturday night as he and his wife were returning to their Columbia University-owned apartment in upper Manhattan by officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The agents told the couple that Khalil was being detained because his student visa had been revoked.

When his wife provided documents proving he was a green card holderthe agents said that was also being revoked and took him away in handcuffs, according to a lawsuit Khalil’s attorneys filed challenging his detention.

Why is he facing deportation?

The Department of Homeland Security, confirming his arrest Saturday, accused Khalil of leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

The White House, elaborating more on its position Tuesday, claimed Khalil organized protests where pro-Hamas propaganda was distributed.

“This administration is not going to tolerate individuals having the privilege of studying in our country and then siding with pro-terrorist organizations that have killed Americans,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary.

A lawyer for Khalil, Samah Sisay, said there is no evidence that his client provided support of any kind to a terrorist organization.

“They’re trying to make an example of him to chill others from making similar speech,” Sisay told The Associated Press. “Not agreeing with your government’s foreign policy decision to support Israel is not a reason for you to be in deportation proceedings.”

Who is Mahmoud Khalil?

Khalil was one of the most visible activists in the protests last spring at Columbia, which also happened on other college campuses around the world.

He served as a student negotiator — a role that had him speaking frequently with university officials and the press.

More recently, he was among the pro-Palestinian activists investigated by a new disciplinary body at Columbia University focused on harassment and discrimination complaints.

Khalil completed his master’s degree in public administration at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in December.

What’s his legal status?

Khalil was born and raised in Syria after his Palestinian grandparents were removed from their homeland, according to his lawsuit.

He came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2022 to pursue his graduate studies at Columbia.

Khalil married his wife, who is a U.S. citizen, in 2023. He became a legal permanent resident — also known as a green card holder — last year.

Can the government deport green card holders?

Short answer: yes. Green card holders can be deported, but the government has the burden to prove the person is deportable.

Grounds for deportation can range from being convicted of a range of crimes, from murder, assault and burglary to tax evasion, domestic violence and illegal firearms possession, according to Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law expert and retired Cornell Law School professor.

But a legal permanent resident can also be expelled for providing material support to a terrorist group, in which case the government doesn’t need a criminal conviction to bring deportation charges, he said.

“Material support for immigration purposes is much broader than the criminal definition of the term,” Yale-Loehr explained. “For example, people have been deported for simply providing a cup of water or bowl of rice to guerrilla groups, even under duress.”

Where is Khalil?

Khalil is being held at a federal immigration detention facility in a central Louisiana town roughly 170 miles (275 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans.

The Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, which is a low-slung complex ringed by barbed wire fences, can hold about 1,160 detainees.

Louisiana became a hub for immigrant detention during the first Trump administration and has nine centers, most of them run by private contractors.

Critics say the isolated complexes cut prisoners off from easy access to attorneys and family.

“The intent is to kind of break the morale, the spirits, of those that are held at these facilities,” Yasmine Taeb, the legislative and political director for the Muslim activist group MPower Change, told reporters Tuesday.

What’s next?

A federal judge in Manhattan has ordered the government to not deport Khalil until the court has a chance to review the case. A hearing on his legal challenge is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.

Khalil also has an initial hearing in immigration court in Louisiana on March 21.

Khalil’s lawyers contend he has a right to due process as a legal permanent resident and that the government is “engaging in blatant efforts to target and chill” Khalil’s free speech and to “discriminate against particular viewpoints,” in violation of the First Amendment.

They’ve also petitioned the court to have him returned to New York, as his wife is eight months pregnant.

“For everyone reading this, I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby,” his wife, who has not been named, wrote in a statement provided by his lawyers. “I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world.”

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Associated Press reporters Jake Offenhartz in New York, Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis contributed to this story.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

Many of America’s global competitors — and adversaries — are no doubt cheering President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. They know that countries who out-educate the rest of the world will out-compete it. And now brand new Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Trump want to neuter, if not completely shutter, the entity that helps give all children in the United States access to the great public school education they deserve. On Tuesday, the department announced plans to cut nearly half of its staff. McMahon says these catastrophic firings, alongside hundreds of so-called “buyouts,” are about “efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.” The reality is far more cowardly.

The president claims he wants the states to run education — but states and local school districts already operate schools and make curriculum decisions. Nobody wants that to stop. Similarly, nobody wants more red tape or unnecessary, inefficient bureaucracy. But here, too, there are ways to achieve “efficiency” without betraying the promises made to America’s children.

Nobody wants more red tape or unnecessary, inefficient bureaucracy.

The department in its modern form was establishedhed by Congress in 1979 to level up access to education, to help working families pay for college, to boost student achievement and to pave pathways to good middle-class jobs.

According to its 2025 fiscal year budget summarydepartment grants help close to 26 million children from poor families get extra support to reach their full potential.

It helps meet the individual needs of around 7.5 million children with disabilities. It provided tens of millions to help the over 5 million English learners in U.S. classrooms improve their proficiency and assimilate into our communities. And it provided nearly 9 million students with the financial aid they need to attend college or trade programs, including work-study programs.

Why would anyone allow Elon Musk to steal that money, which Congress appropriated for children, to pay for tax breaks for the rich and corporations?

Indeed, much of the department’s total annual budget helps Americans trying to secure a college education. Why does Trump want to make it even harder for the children of low-income and middle-class families to cover skyrocketing college and university costs?

A gutted department would mean fewer teachers, more crowded classrooms and increased mental health and behavioral challenges for students. We’d most likely see increased absenteeism and decreased graduation rates. Fewer students would be able to obtain the degrees or credentials they need for well-paying jobs, meaning more students would have to settle for low-wage work or simply drop out of the workforce. And many cities and states would have to increase school budgets to make up for these cuts, resulting in higher state and local taxes.

Instead, this move sends a clear message that, in Trump’s America, only kids from wealthy families are entitled to opportunity. How does that help make America great?

Of course, opportunity comes in many forms. The world is a complicated place, and we need to prepare students for an increasingly complicated workforce. And yet, just days after the president signed a proclamationdeclaring February “Career and Technical Education Month,” Career and Technical Education, or CTE, programs are on the chopping block.

Secretary McMahon and I agree that high school can’t just be college prep. We both back the engaged, hands-on learning that students receive through CTE. We both believe in the Swiss apprenticeship program I had the honor of visiting last month. In the United States and Switzerland, students graduate from CTE programs ranging from construction and plumbing to manufacturing and health care with the skills, credentials and real-world experiences they need to secure good jobs, often right in their backyards.

I taught in a CTE high school and saw firsthand the potential of these programs, but states don’t have the resources to scale such transformational pathways alone. The federal government should and could turbocharge CTE to support millions of future electricians, EMTs, coders, plumbers, automotive technicians, early childhood educators and workers in countless other professions. But that won’t happen if Trump eliminates the department.

These changes will inflict tremendous harm on kids’ futures. If Trump follows through with an eventual executive order demolishing the department, his actions may also be illegal. I’m a civics teacher and a lawyer, so here’s a bit of Civics 101: Congress created the Department of Education, and only Congress can abolish it. Neither the president nor Musk has the right to appropriate or eliminate funds or ax entire federal departments — only Congress does. Many legal experts agree with me.

The American people did not vote for chaotic and reckless attacks on public schools.

The American people did not vote for chaotic and reckless attacks on public schools. Even in Nebraska and Kentucky, states that Trump won overwhelmingly, voters rejecteden masse, measures to defund and privatize their public schools. Ironically, the funds Musk wants to take away go disproportionately to supporting children in rural red states.

My union will continue to fight to protect our kids and to fund their future, because it is both the smart and the right thing to do. Last Tuesday, we held over 100 events across the country to protect our kids.

Diverting billions from our children to pay for tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy is a callous decision that short-changes everyone. If we want to engage kids, if we want America to be a nation of “explorers, builders, innovators [and] entrepreneurs,” as Trump said in his inaugural address, then logically it follows that we should be investing more in education, not less.

The dreams of millions of kids, and the promise of America, depend on it.

Randi Weingarten

Randi Weingarten is a high school social studies teacher and president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers.

The House narrowly passed a spending bill on Tuesday, clearing the first hurdle to avert a government shutdown as the bill now moves to the Senate for a vote.

The six-month continuing resolution passed 217-213, with all Republicans — except Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky — voting for the bill at the urging of President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the only Democrat to support the bill.

Although House Democrats have historically voted to support such stopgap measures, Democratic leaders have said that this time around the spending bill would only help Trump and billionaire Elon Musk continue to enact sweeping cuts across the federal government.

A handful of House Republicans were tight-lipped on how they were leaning ahead of the vote. Massie was the only one among his GOP colleagues who publicly refused to support the measure, criticizing such short-term extensions to keep the government open.

“It amazes me that my colleagues and many of the public fall for the lie that we will fight another day,” he wrote on X.

Massie ultimately remained the lone Republican to defy Trump and Johnson by opposing the bill.

Clarissa-je Lim

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.