Mahmoud Khalil is a Scapegoat

Hi. How are you? Welcome back to one more day from the Canary Islands to the world with a new episode of this podcast about human rights or other curiosities. A pleasure to be here.

Mahmoud Khalil, a thirty-year-old born in Syria who recently graduated with a master’s degree from Columbia University, was arrested by U.S. immigration authorities on Saturday. Khalil, who is of Palestinian ancestry, had become a prominent participant in the protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that rocked Columbia in the aftermath of October 7th. 

Mahmoud's case is simply the tip of the iceberg of a problem: the need to punish all migrants, whether they have a "green card" or not.

Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist and negotiator in the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupations, was taken from his home by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on March 8, 2025  without having been charged with a crime. The federal immigration agents were acting on orders from the State Department to revoke Khalil’s student visa. When the agents were informed that Khalil, of Palestinian and Syria nationality and Algerian citizenship, is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. in possession of a green card, they said they were revoking that instead.

The detention is the first publicly known deportation effort related to pro-Palestine activism under President Donald Trump, who has threatened to punish students and others he says support Hamas or promote antisemitism.

Though Khalil is a legal permanent resident of the United States, the government says that it has revoked his green card and plans to deport him. On Truth Social, Donald Trump wrote that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had “proudly apprehended” Khalil, and that this arrest would be the first of “many to come.”

And with this I conclude today episode, see you in the next one!

If you have any comments or suggestions for future episodes, you can write me a comment.

Patricia López Muñoz

Higher Technician in Sociocultural Dynamisation

Specialist Technician in Immigration

Higher Technician in Social Integration