The Columbia University alumni who was detained by federal immigration officials on Saturday is a former Palestinian student and known campus agitators.
Immigration and customs enforcement agencies have sympathized with terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah and supported the Colombian-owned apartment home to Mahmoud Khalil, who stepped on the front line of the Colombia United Apartheid Dibust (CUAD) to invoke the “end of Western civilization.”
According to his LinkedIn, Khalil served temporarily as political affairs officer for UNRWA (UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees), who were stripped of tens of millions of federal funds after an explosive report of participating in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, and 1,200 people killed.
Halil and Quad were at the forefront of chaotic, sometimes violent campus protests at Columbia and Bernard University, which date back to at least last spring.
Born in Syria in 1995 in Beirut, Halil, he enrolled in Colombia and completed his graduate degree from the International Public Office in December, which was the driving force behind anti-Israel protests that have plagued schools for over a year.
According to his lawyer, Amy Greer, Halil is a permanent US resident with a green card. He has served as a key negotiator with school administrators on multiple occasions, including last spring's Gaza Solidarity camp, where tent scores were built on the campus lawns of Ivy League schools.
He was suspended from Colombia to attend the demonstrations last April, but the suspension was reversed the next day due to no evidence, Halil told BBC reporters at the time.
He was a regular fixture in a news programme that discussed the group's disruptive efforts, including interviews about the QUDS News Network, which were fully conducted in Arabic. He was filmed at a campus protest dated back to April last year, talking to the Bullhorns, joining a dance circle and marching in a scarf on Kefier's head.
Reports say Halil is married and his eight-month pregnant wife was in the couple's apartment when Ice took him into custody.
