A former classmate of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian Columbia graduate student recently arrested by ICE, spoke out after his arrest, saying she feels “safer with him gone” and claimed that he “hates America and everything it stands for.”
The New York Post reported that one of Khalil’s classmates, a female Jewish graduate student, was scared of defending her beliefs out of fear of retaliation from Khalil. She called Khalil an “insidious” presence on campus and said she even dropped one of her classes because of him, telling the Post, “I just didn’t want to become a target of his.”
Khalil, 30, is a Syrian-born Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University. He was one of the most prominent leaders of last year’s Israel-Gaza war protests, many of which disrupted classes and required heavy police response.
He was arrested by ICE on March 8 and is currently being kept at a detention facility in Louisiana.
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Mahmoud Khalil, left, and protesters, right (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey | Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
While Democrats and the media have accused the Trump administration of attempting to crack down on free speech, the administration has said Khalil is a terrorist sympathizer who poses a threat to national security.
After the arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that the administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
Khalil’s former classmate said that although his appearance is normal, his rhetoric left her and other Jewish students feeling extremely threatened. She filed two Title VI complaints with the Columbia administration, but the university never took any action against him.
“It would almost be easier if he were some terrifying looking man who threatened to punch people in the face, but he wasn’t,” she said. “He was very soft-spoken and careful with his words, which almost made him seem more insidious, because it was so intentional – he was never being hyperbolic, he was very clear. He was never joking.”
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A protester holds a Palestinian flag during a march on Columbia University campus in New York City, April 29, 2024. (Reuters/David Dee Delgado)
Since his arrest, the student said she has “felt safer on campus.”
“I really do think this country is probably safer without him here, like I don’t know how he got a green card,” she said.
“He seems very much like he hates America and everything it stands for,” she added. “I think he’s done a lot to cause harm and violence here, and I could see him doing more.”
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Despite the criticism from the media, President Donald Trump said Khalil’s arrest is the “first of many to come.”
“Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”
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People gather in Foley Square to protest the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, March 10, 2025, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again,” he added. “If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here.”
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On Friday, ICE arrested a second Columbia student activist, Leqaa Kordia, who is from the West Bank and was also involved with the Israel-Gaza protests. Kordia was unlawfully present in the country despite her student visa being canceled in 2022.
Columbia University did not respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital by the time of publication.
The Justice Department is also investigating whether the university intentionally hid students who are in the country illegally. Columbia interim President Katrina Armstrong issued a statement on Saturday saying that the university “will stand by its values,” but did not directly respond to the DOJ investigation.
