Columbia University

Confronted with huge cuts to its federal funding, Columbia University’s leaders face a grim decision: They can yield to the Trump administration’s demands over allegations of antisemitism — ceding extraordinary control to the federal government — or they can fight back, potentially risking even more debilitating cuts in an escalating clash.

A Columbia University student activist who was detained by the U.S. government over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations has the right to challenge the legality of his detention, but the case should be heard in New Jersey, rather than in New York or Louisiana, a judge ruled Wednesday. Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record,...

Mahmoud Khalil said he is being targeted as part of an effort to repress Palestinian voices in a letter dictated from a Louisiana immigration center.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Columbia University concealed “illegal aliens” on its campus, one of its top officials said Friday, as the Trump administration intensified its campaign to deport foreigners who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the school last year. Agents with the Department of Homeland Security searched two university residences with a warrant Thursday evening. No...

The American Civil Liberties Union released a 2-minute video documenting the arrest last weekend of Mahmoud Khalil, an activist who helped lead many protests on Columbia University’s campus last year. “Plainclothes agents detain and take Mahmoud Khalil from his home. His wife, Noor Abdalla, who is 8 months pregnant, recorded the video,” the ACLU wrote in a caption posted to…

The Trump administration’s crackdown on college campuses is ramping up with the arrest of another student at Columbia University accused of taking part in what they describe as pro-Hamas protests. NBC News 4 New York’s Melissa Colorado reports. 

A second Columbia University student involved with last year’s protests has been arrested by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with Homeland Security Investigations, while another had her student visa revoked and self-deported, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday. Columbia University couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The night before, DHS agents searched the dorm rooms of two...

A government lawyer has asked a federal judge to move the legal fight over the detention of Mahmoud Khalil to either New Jersey or Louisiana. The request was made Wednesday during a hearing in New York City. Khalil is a Columbia University graduate student whom the Trump Administration is trying to deport over his role in pro-Palestinian protests at the...

Tracie Strahan reports.

More than a hundred demonstrators made their way into Trump Tower in midtown, calling on President Donald Trump to release the Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who’s facing deportation. The NYPD said they arrested 98 protesters and hauled them away on buses. NBC New York’s Erica Byfield reports.

Columbia University says it has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests in Spring 2024 and temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students who have since graduated.

A New York judge is deciding what’s next for Mahmoud Khalil, who helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University in 2024. Protesters gathered outside federal court demanding his release. Khalil was taken to a detention center in Louisiana and will stay there for now, though his attorneys want him returned to New York. NBC New York’s Erica Byfield reports.

A government lawyer has asked a federal judge to move the legal fight over the detention of Mahmoud Khalil to either New Jersey or Louisiana. The request was made Wednesday during a hearing in New York City. Khalil is a Columbia University graduate student whom the Trump Administration is trying to deport over his role in pro-Palestinian protests at the...

Romney Smith reports on today’s court hearing for the pro-Palestinian activist arrested by ICE.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead student protests at Columbia University, faces deportation after being arrested over the weekend by federal immigration officials.

A crowd in the hundreds gathered at Washington Square Park called for the release of former Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil. In 2024, Khalil was one of the leaders inside Columbia’s campus protests of the Israel-Hamas war. Federal immigration agents picked up Khalil, a permanent resident with a green card, on Saturday Columbia student-housing apartment. NBC New York’s Gaby Acevedo...

A Palestinian activist who helped lead student protests at Columbia University faces deportation after being arrested over the weekend by federal immigration officials. So who is Mahmoud Khalil and why is he facing deportation?

A New York judge has intervened in the case of Mahmoud Khalil, putting a hold on any deportation, at least temporarily. NBC New York’s Erica Byfield reports. 

President Donald Trump is warning that the arrest and possible deportation of a Palestinian activist who helped lead protests at Columbia University will be the first “of many to come” as his administration cracks down on students protesting the war in Gaza.

A federal judge in New York blocked the Trump administration from deporting a prominent Palestinian activist who was arrested over the weekend for helping lead protests last spring at Columbia University.