Mahmoud Khalil criticizes Columbia University's response to pro-Palestinian protests, policy changes in op-ed
Activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil is speaking out through an op-ed published in the campus newspaper "Columbia Spectator."
The newspaper says Khalil, who is currently detained in Louisiana, dictated the op-ed to his attorney.
Khalil addresses the op-ed to Columbia students and the school itself, calling it "an institution that laid the groundwork for my abduction."
In the piece, he criticizes Columbia's response to pro-Palestinian protests on campus, writing in part, "The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia's repression playbook concerning Palestine."
Khalil also accused the university of "systematically [gutting] every value it claims to uphold" by enacting sweeping policy changes to comply with demands from the Trump administration.
He goes on to claim the Board of Trustees "executed a historic maneuver to seize direct control of the presidency" by naming board co-chair Claire Shipman the new acting president of the university, replacing interim president Katrina Armstrong.
"Faced with a movement for divestment they couldn't crush, your trustees opted to set fire to the institution they're entrusted with," Khalil wrote.
Khalil also references the Trump administration requesting Columbia turning over student disciplinary records to Congress, which led to Khalil and several other students filing a lawsuit against the school.
Khalil's arrest
Khalil, 30, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 8 at his university-owned apartment building in Manhattan. He was taken to a New York field office, then to New Jersey, then flown to Louisiana. The government has said Khalil was sent to Louisiana due to a bedbug infestation at the detention center in New Jersey.
Khalil has a green card and is in the United States legally.
He has not been charged with any crimes, but federal authorities want him to be deported for what they call "activities in support of Hamas." Khalil was a prominent figure of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on Columbia's campus last year in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
A judge ruled earlier this week that jurisdiction over the case will remain in New Jersey.
