Pro-Palestinian activists are facing an alarming new era in the U.S. as the Trump administration steps up efforts to crack down on views it deems dangerous, including positions sympathetic to their movement.
Alarm over the government’s actions has grown in recent days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who was active in pro-Palestinian protests on campus and is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. with a green card. The Trump administration has vowed to continue to pursue its policy and has since detained a couple others.
Advocates say the administration’s moves are designed to create a climate of fear among those who speak out. But they emphasize that continuing to stand up for Palestinian rights is as important as ever as the war between Israel and Hamas restarts.
“I think we’re all seeing, across the Palestinian movement, that the Trump administration is trying to make an example for all other social justice movements, that if they dare criticize his ways, this is likely to happen to them as well,” said Iman Abid-Thompson, the director of advocacy at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
As the detentions have occurred, activists have indicated that they are prepared to fight back but acknowledge the fear they feel that they could be targeted.
Sources said they’re not surprised at the administration’s moves given Trump’s talk on the campaign trail critical of the U.S. immigration system and the pro-Palestinian protests that have received widespread attention since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023.
After taking office, Trump quickly moved to deport those in the country without proper documentation. But he signaled a wider approach to his immigration crackdown with the arrest of Khalil, who was a leader in the protests at Columbia University, earlier this month.
The administration said it would move forward to detain others violating Trump’s executive orders on antisemitism and safeguarding against terrorism. The terrorism one calls for ensuring visa holders don’t “bear hostile attitudes” toward U.S. citizens or its government.
Trump said following Khalil’s arrest that his would be the first of many “terrorist sympathizers,” tying their pro-Palestinian activism to support for terror but not specifically saying how they have expressed support for Hamas or terrorism generally.
The legal rationale for the administration’s moves has been a provision from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which allows the secretary of state to deport any foreign national whose “presence or activities” could harm U.S. national security or foreign policy.
At least two other individuals have also been detained along with Khalil under the administration’s policy. Rasha Alawieh, an assistant professor from Brown University in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, was detained after returning from a trip to Lebanon before being deported.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Alawieh was in Lebanon to attend the funeral of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The U.S. and many other western nations in the world consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
“A visa is a privilege not a right — glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied,” DHS said. “This is commonsense security.”
But Alawieh was deported even after a judge ordered for her to remain, with the government saying the agents who deported her weren’t aware of the ruling before doing so.
And on Monday, ICE detained a Georgetown University postdoctoral scholar, an Indian national named Badar Khan Suri, in the U.S. on a visa. Officers told Suri his visa had been revoked, and DHS accused Suri of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism” online. Suri’s lawyers argue he is being targeted because his wife, a U.S. citizen, is of Palestinian heritage, as well as his critical views of Israel.
None of these individuals were accused of a crime nor in the country illegally.
“Using [the law] in a way that allows them to do that based solely on their expression and not on some other criminal acts that they can point to is effectively the ability to put a unilateral speech code on what non-American citizens can say if they want to stay in the United States,” said Robert Shibley, the special counsel for campus advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
FIRE and a few other civil liberties groups have filed a brief supporting Khalil against what they call “unconstitutional retaliation.”
Shibley said the administration attempting to remove these individuals could have a chilling effect on free speech, which the Supreme Court has found applies to those not citizens too.
Some effects of that are already being seen.
The dean of Columbia’s journalism school cautioned students on visas about covering the war in Israel or Ukraine and Khalil’s arrest, saying “Nobody can protect you.”
“You hate to see this advice being given, but it’s hard to blame them,” Shibley said.
Brown warned international students and staff against foreign travel for now. After the Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants to Columbia, the university reportedly agreed to a range of new policies to get the grants restored, including restrictions on locations for protests, giving campus police new arrest powers and giving the provost’s office more disciplinary power.
But activists aren’t showing signs of standing down.
Abid-Thompson said protests at Columbia have continued, creating even more of a movement rallying around Khalil.
“We know it’s [Trump’s] intention to repress and get people to silence themselves, the opposite impact has happened,” she said.
The New York chapter of the Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the national organization received a restraining order on Thursday to prevent Columbia from complying with any federal orders that would violate First Amendment rights.
Lamya Agarwala, a supervising attorney for CAIR, said a hearing will take place on Tuesday with the goal of giving students “a bit of breathing room” with somewhat more long-term protection. She said students need to decide for themselves in the meantime how to balance their own safety with wanting to continue to speak out.
“Your ability to be safe and potentially stay in the United States and speaking out for things you really believe in and care about, these two things should not be pitted against each other,” Agarwala said. “And yet they are.”
A Cornell University professor and two graduate students are suing the federal government over Trump’s executive orders, arguing that they violate their First and Fifth Amendment rights.
One of the graduate students, Momodou Taal, who is British and in the U.S. on a visa, posted on X that law enforcement came to his home and other Cornell students saw law enforcement cars positioned near his residence.
Members of the Cornell community rallied for Taal on Thursday.
After the protest, Taal acknowledged fear for his own situation but maintained that he would continue to advocate for Palestinians.
“Am I stressed beyond anything I’ve ever experienced before? Most definitely,” he said on X. “But I cannot, in good conscience, remain silent.”
Senior progressive strategist Abbas Alawieh said the administration’s action shouldn’t just worry activists but judges, members of Congress and people in various communities.
“I think it’s an encouraging sign that in response to pro-Palestinian activism across the country, we’re seeing more and more leaders… across the country step up and defend the rights of people who are standing up for human rights, regardless of whether or not our leaders agree with them,” he said.
Julia Manchester contributed.
