Anti-Israel student activists hoping to dissuade the Trump administration from rounding up and deporting non-citizen student activists who support designated terror groups may want to acquaint themselves with basic immigration law. That’s the message from a longtime immigration lawyer who warns that the federal government has a strong legal case for removing pro-terror student agitators from the country.

“Unless you’re an American citizen and have the golden grail, a U.S. passport, you can still be removed from the United States under immigration laws,” a managing partner with immigration law firm Wildes & Weinberg, Michael Wildes, tells the Sun. 

Mr. Wildes, who is also the immigration lawyer to First Lady Melania Trump, points to Section 237(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows for the deportation of non-citizens for security-related reasons. The law specifically states that any “alien who has engaged, is engaged, or at any time after admission engages in” criminal activity “which endangers public safety or national security” is “deportable.”

A conviction, he notes, is not required to trigger deportation. 

“This administration has a vested interest in dismantling Hamas and those that support it, and I think that’s a laudatory effort,” Mr. Wildes tells the Sun. “It’s also a necessary one given the jeopardy that Jewish students are in at Columbia.”

A federal judge, though, late Monday froze the efforts to deport Mr. Khalil and summoned the sides to a courtroom conference to determine what should happen next. Judge Jesse Furman, who was named to the federal bench by President Obama, ordered that Mr. Khalil “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise.” Judge Furman proposes that counsel for both sides conference on Wednesday.

Legal debate over the status of non-citizen student protesters began over the weekend when Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a leading anti-Israel student activist at Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian national who entered the United States on a student visa and later received permanent resident status. The agents were acting on a State Department order to revoke his visa and green card. 

Mr. Khalil, one of the leading organizers behind the anti-Israel student encampments that have roiled Columbia University’s campus since October 2023, was under investigation by a Columbia disciplinary committee focused on antisemitic conduct by the protesters. Recent video footage showed that he participated in protests last week at Barnard College, an affiliate of Columbia, during which anti-Israel student activists illegally occupied a college library and handed out propaganda pamphlets written by the “Hamas Media Office.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement Sunday that Mr. Khalil’s arrest was related to allegations that he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” The government has not yet offered additional details. Mr. Khalil’s arrest comes as the Trump administration pursues its aggressive approach to quashing campus antisemitism. 

Mr. Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer, maintains that her client was “wrongfully arrested” and filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the validity of his arrest and detention. She released a statement on Sunday declaring that Mr. Khalil’s arrest “follows the U.S. government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza.” 

Mr. Wildes, though, says that not all speech is protected by the First Amendment. “I remember learning about the Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire case in college. That taught us that you can’t scream fire in a movie theater,” Mr. Wildes tells the Sun. “There’s no freedom of speech to help incite violence and to support terrorists.” 

Monday, President Trump doubled down on his administration’s efforts, declaring on Truth Social that “This is the first arrest of many to come.” The 47th president continued: “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.” He added that “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”

An official White House account on X echoed the president’s sentiment, sharing a graphic announcing Mr. Khalil’s arrest along with the message: “Shalom Mahmoud.” Shalom, the Hebrew word for “hello” and “goodbye,” was included in the president’s recent ultimatum to Hamas. “‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye — you can choose,” the President declared last week.

Mr. Khalil’s supporters are planning to gather in New York City on Monday evening to demand his “immediate release.” The recent Columbia graduate was first brought to the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey before he was transferred to an ICE processing center in central Louisiana, according to ICE’s detainee database.

In an email to students, faculty and staff of the university late Monday, Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, admitted that the school is facing what she called a “challenging moment” and stressed that it would fight for what she said are “America’s values” — freedom of expression and open inquiry. She rejected any claims that leadership of the school invited immigration authorities onto the campus.

“I understand the distress that many of you are feeling about the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the streets around campus,” she said. “I feel it too and am working with our team to manage the response.”