Society
NEW: Stephen Miller Calls Out Democrats For Supporting Hamas-Aligned Protestor
The Columbia University student targeted for deportation by the Trump administration has previously endorsed the destruction of Israel and even the United States, forfeiting his right to be here, according to Trump advisor Stephen Miller.
In a post on X, the Trump immigration authority alleged that Mahmoud Khalil, 29, has been detained by officers with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement on the grounds that his anti-Israel protests in 2024 veered into open support for terrorism.
“America exercises sole and exclusive control over admission to our country. We are a sovereign nation. Admission is a privilege — an extraordinary privilege. Not a right,” Miller wrote on Sunday. “Those who sympathize with terrorism are unwelcome on our shores. They will be denied entry or sent home.”
America exercises sole and exclusive control over admission to our country.
We are a sovereign nation.
Admission is a privilege — an extraordinary privilege. Not a right.
Those who sympathize with terrorism are unwelcome on our shores.
They will be denied entry or sent home.
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) March 10, 2025
In the days since his arrest, media coverage of Khalil has erupted as the Syrian-born former graduate student disappeared from public view while friends and relatives said they had lost the ability to contact him or know of his whereabouts. He’s since been reported held at a facility in Louisiana.
Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates have decried the detainment, which ICE said in a statement was done “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” because he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
Khalil has been linked to anti-Israel boycotts at Columbia, where he attended the School of International and Public Affairs, as well as Barnard College. Last year, he negotiated on behalf of students who commandeered campus buildings and refused to leave until Columbia agreed to divest its holdings from all Israeli-affiliated corporations.
At Barnard, Khalil appeared in a video from inside a Barnard College academic building, which he helped “take over” while littering the facility with antisemitic propaganda, according to independent journalist Eitan Fischberger. Some of the photographs shared by Fischberger appear to show warlike imagery with phrases such as “death to America.”
Mahmoud Khalil stood in front of a crowd of thousands of people calling for them to celebrate Hamas terrorists who raped and slaughtered innocent civilians…
The same Hamas terrorists who call for “Death to America”…
That’s why he’s being deported.
— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) March 10, 2025
During the height of unrest at Columbia, video footage obtained by Fischberger shows Khalil encouraging campus protestors to cheer for the “resistance” taking place against Israel’s incursion into Gaza. Fischberger framed the former student’s plea as an endorsement of Hamas, the terrorist organization behind the deadly Oct. 7th, 2023 attack.
WATCH:
Such protests were ostensibly aimed at severing ties between universities, Israeli-linked corporations, and researchers, but other public statements by a group affiliated with Khalil went much further.
CU Apartheid Divest, a student-run organization co-founded by the former student, previously posted on Instagram that its members are “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.”
Mahmoud Khalil led a student group that openly declared its mission was to “fight for the total eradication of Western civilization” while taking instructions from terrorist organizations.
How much more evidence do people need? pic.twitter.com/RoB5eAxjcc
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 11, 2025
Such propagations make it harder for Khalil and his supporters to separate his speech from his defense against the Trump administration’s decision to expel him to Syria on the grounds of advocating for terrorism.
On Monday, a federal judge blocked Khalil’s deportation, and a hearing on the matter is scheduled for Wednesday.
Hundreds of protestors in New York, Chicago, and other parts of the country are planning to demonstrate on Tuesday in support of Khalil. A protest planned for the grounds of Columbia has since been moved off-campus, according to a source who spoke with NBC News.
