The activist Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian student movement at Columbia University, has been transferred to Louisiana after federal immigration officials arrested him over the weekend, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website.
Mr. Khalil is being held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La. His lawyer, Amy Greer, said after his arrest that he was a green card holder and that the detention would be challenged.
Federal immigration officials did not immediately reply to questions about Mr. Khalil’s transfer, including why he was taken more than 1,000 miles from his home in New York City.
President Trump hailed the arrest of Mr. Khalil in a Truth Social posting on Monday and pledged that more student arrests are forthcoming.
“ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University,” the president wrote. “This is the first arrest of many to come.”
Mr. Khalil is of Palestinian heritage and graduated in December from Columbia with a master’s degree from the School of International and Public Affairs, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, his lawyer said.
The arrest of Mr. Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, represents a dramatic escalation of President Trump’s crackdown against what he has called antisemitic campus activity.
As news spread about Mr. Khalil’s detention, a petition calling for his release amassed more than 900,000 signatures by Monday morning. A group of faculty members from Columbia prepared to gather Monday evening with Jewish community leaders and immigrant rights advocates to denounce what they described as “the unprecedented and unconstitutional arrest of a permanent resident and Columbia graduate student in retaliation for his political activity.”
Sophie Ellman-Golan, the communications director of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice and a Barnard College graduate, described Mr. Khalil’s arrest as “so deeply wrong and scary.”
“To target someone for their political speech in this way, to target a permanent resident in this way, is an aberration,” Ms. Ellman-Golan said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting.