A former classmate of Mahmoud KhalilThe Palestinian graduated Columbia -student who was recently arrested by Ice, spoke out after his arrest and said that she “feels” safer with him “and claimed that he” hates America and everything it stands for “.
The New York Post reported that one of Khalil’s classmates, a female Jewish graduate student, was afraid to defend her beliefs for fear of retaliation by Khalil. She called Khalil a “treacherous” presence on campus and said she had even dropped one of her lessons because of him and told the position: “I just didn’t want to be a target of him.”
Khalil, 30, is a student born in Syria in Syria Columbia University. He was one of the most prominent leaders of the Israel-Gaza war protests of last year, many of which disrupted classes and needed serious police reaction.
He was arrested by Ice on March 8 and is currently being held in a detention facility in Louisiana.
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Mahmoud Khalil, left and demonstrators, right (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey | Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
While Democrats and the media the Trump administration From trying to combat free speech, the administration has said that Khalil is a terrorist sympathizer that pays a threat to national security.
After the arrest, State Secretary Marco Rubio Announced on X that the administration “The Visa and/or green cards from Hamas supporters in America withdraw, so that they can be deported.”
Khalil’s former classmate said that although his appearance is normal, his rhetoric and other Jewish students felt extremely threatened. She submitted two title VI complaints to the Columbia administration, but the university has never taken any action against him.
“It would be almost easier if he was a frightening looking man who threatened to hit people in the face, but he wasn’t,” she said. “He was very gentle and careful with his words, making him almost more insidious, because it was so deliberate he was never hyperbolic, he was very clear. He never joked.”
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A demonstrant has a Palestinian flag during a campus in March at Columbia University in New York City, April 29, 2024. (Reuters/David Dee Delgado)
Since his arrest, the student said that she “felt safer on campus.”
“I really think this country here is probably safer without him, as if I don’t know how he got a green card,” she said.
“He seems very much like he hates America and everything it stands for,” she added. “I think he did a lot to cause damage and violence here, and I could see him do more.”
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Despite the criticism of the media, President Donald Trump Said Khalil’s arrest is the “first of many that come.”
“After my previously signed executive orders, Ice proudly arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a radical foreign pro-hama student on the Campus of Columbia University,” Trump wrote about Truth Social. “We know that there are more students in Columbia and other universities throughout the country who deal with pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate this.”
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People gather on Foley Square to protest against the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, March 10, 2025, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“We will find, purchase and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return,” he added. “If you support terrorism, including the slaughter of innocent men, women and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here.”
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On Friday, ICE arrested a second Columbia student activist, Laqa CodiaThat comes from the West Bank and was also involved in the protests of Israel-Gaza. Kordia was illegally present in the country, even though her student visa was canceled in 2022.
Columbia University did not respond to a request for comments from Fox News Digital against the publication.
The Ministry of Justice also investigates whether the university deliberately hid students who are illegal in the country. Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong issued a statement on Saturday and said that the university “will remain its values”, but did not respond directly to the DOJ research.
