White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday evening on Fox News that the arrest of the Syrian-born leader of a violent pro-Hamas protest is the “first of many to come.”
Syrian-born 30-year-old Mahmoud Khalil was detained by officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Saturday evening following his involvement in a student encampment at Columbia University last year, according to the Associated Press. With his green card revoked, Khalil has been accused of “activities aligned with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
On “Hannity,” the Fox host asked Leavitt why Khalil would believe he has “a right to stay in the country” if he’s supporting a terrorist organization like Hamas.
“Everything you just said is true, Sean, and, unfortunately, it appears the liberals in the legacy media think that if you are a foreign national, you can behave in any manner that you want,” Leavitt said. “You can protest and push Hamas propaganda. You can side with a foreign terrorist organization that has killed American citizens, that has murdered innocent babies, men, women, and children across the globe. Under this administration, that type of activity, siding with radical Islamic terrorists, will not stand.”
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“The Trump administration, at the direction of President Trump’s executive order, has a zero-tolerance policy for foreign nationals who are given the privilege of getting a visa and going to some of our nation’s finest universities and colleges, studying at those institutions, and then siding with these radical terrorist organizations,” Leavitt said.
Khalil, a graduate of Columbia, was the “lead negotiator” for one of the university’s groups that led the front lines of an illegal encampment in April 2024, which ended in occupying a school building and damaging property. At the time of the incident, Khalil told reporters he was a student at the school, attending “on an F-1 visa.”
Leavitt went on to say that both DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are working together to investigate the students who aided in the pro-Hamas protests, adding that it is within Rubio’s legal jurisdiction to revoke visas based on the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“So this arrest that took place on the campus of Columbia is the first of many to come,” Leavitt said. “Secretary Noem and Secretary of State Rubio are working together, and I would like to add and emphasize to the mainstream media, who still doesn’t get it, this is well within the president’s and the secretary of state’s authority.”
“Secretary Rubio revoked this individual’s visa based on the Immigration and Nationality Act because this individual clearly poses an adversarial effect consequence to the foreign policy and national interests of our great country,” Leavitt added. “This was the right decision. President Trump promised he would stand up for Jewish-American students, and he is delivering on that promise.”
In a post on X following Khalil’s arrest, Rubio wrote that the administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” With Khalil still being detained, U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman ordered DHS on Monday not to remove the activist from the U.S. until a lawsuit challenging his detention is considered.
Since the former Columbia grad’s arrest, hundreds of protesters in support of Khalil gathered in New York City’s Washington Square Tuesday, with an unknown number being arrested by officials, according to CBS News.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News/”Hannity”)
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