New York bishop condemns Trump administration’s attempt to deport Palestinian protester

[Episcopal News Service] New York Bishop Matthew Heyd has issued a statement condemning the attempted deportation of a lawful permanent U.S. resident for his involvement last year protesting the war in Gaza while he was a graduate student at Columbia University.

Mahmoud Khalil, who is Palestinian, was arrested March 8 by immigration agents and is being held in a federal facility in Louisiana while he fights deportation. The Trump administration has produced no evidence that Khalil engaged in criminal activity, and as a green card holder, his lawful permanent residency can only be revoked for specific causes with approval of an immigration judge.

“The Episcopal Diocese of New York rejects the detention and threat of deportation of Mahmoud Khalil,” Heyd said in a statement posted to Facebook. “In accordance with our faith and civic creed, we uphold the belief that difference and dissent should be safe. We reject deportation based on political viewpoint – whether we agree or disagree.”

Antiwar protests at Columbia University and other campuses across the United States generated widespread headlines and controversy in spring 2024, as the Israel-Hamas war dragged on, decimating the Palestinian territory of Gaza, killing thousands of Palestinians and displacing many of the densely populated territory’s 2 million residents.

In the United States, campus authorities faced pressure on both sides, to protect students’ right to peacefully protest while also ensuring the safety of Jewish students when those protests may have crossed a line into antisemitism and threats of violence.

Since taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump, saying he is combating antisemitism, has threatened to deport foreign-born campus protesters who opposed Israel’s war on Hamas, which Israel launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli communities. The Trump administration has specifically scrutinized Columbia University’s handling of the protests, and on March 7, the administration announced it would cut $400 million in federal grants and contracts to the university.

On March 12, Trump personally courted controversy by using the term “Palestinian” as an apparent slur against one of his political opponents, New York Sen. Charles Schumer, the Democratic leader, who is Jewish.

“Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I’m concerned. He’s become a Palestinian,” Trump said in responding to a question about Democrats’ opposition to his tax plan. “He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.”

Khalil appears to have been targeted for arrest by the Trump administration because of his involvement in a group known as Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which has been accused of glorifying Hamas’ attack on Israel. Before his arrest, Khalil told the Associated Press that much of the focus on him was related to the group’s social media posts, in which he not been involved.

Then on March 8, Khalil was in his university-owned apartment when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told the Associated Press.

The ICE agents said Khalil’s student visa had been revoked, even though he has a green card, not a student visa. Greer said that when she informed the agents by phone that Khalil was a lawful permanent resident, they responded they would be revoking that status instead. Greer said the agents also threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, who is a United States citizen and eight months pregnant.

A Homeland Security spokesperson later alleged that Khalil had “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

But when NPR interviewed Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar on March 13, he was unable or unwilling to specify what Khalil had done that was “aligned to Hamas.” Edgar also repeated the apparent falsehood that Khalil was in the United States on a student visa, a status that offers less protections from deportation than a green card.

A green card holder is “not a U.S. citizen, but you’re the next level down, meaning that you have the rights to live, work, travel in the United States,” Kelli Stump, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told NPR in a report on Khalil’s case.

Khalil, 30, reportedly completed his master’s degree in December from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. For now, he remains in federal detention, and a judge has temporarily halted the government’s attempts to deport him while the case is being reviewed in court.

“In the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, our First Amendment right to freedom of expression faces growing threat,” Heyd said in his statement on the case. “We ask for his immediate release, and his return to New York.”

The bishop also affirmed the Diocese of New York as a “sanctuary diocese” in which “we care for our neighbors.”

“Today, we stand with our neighbors at Columbia University. We also encourage Columbia to protect its students when they are threatened. Higher education depends upon the ability to speak honestly and freely, without fear of retribution; and on attracting people of diverse and international viewpoints. As Christians, we’re calling on our neighbors to be neighbors.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.