Students at Bowdin College say they’re not backing down from speaking out after a pro-Palestinian protestor at Columbia University in New York was detained by federal immigration agents.

Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old Syrian-born graduate student at the university and a green card holder (legal permanent resident) since 2023, was arrested this past week and taken to a Louisiana ICE facility. This arrest has been touted by President Trump as the “first of many to come” with his administration cracking down on campus protests regarding the controversial Israel-Hamas war.

“This administration is not going to tolerate individuals having the privilege of studying in our country and then siding with pro-terrorist organizations that have killed Americans,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary.

Despite this, a Bowdin student organizer told CBS 13 that many around the country still aren’t deterred from taking action.

‘I heard from some of the expelled students who were speaking yesterday and talking about how you can expel a student, but you can’t remove their conviction; you can’t remove their commitment.” said Olvia Kenny, who visited a protest in New York.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Khalil’s role in pro-Palestinian activism had riled up “anti-Jewish” sentiment and amounted to support for the terrorist group Hamas. Khalil’s lawyers have challenged his detention in court.

 

To read more about the ongoing issue via the Associated Press, click here.