Mahmoud Khalil arrest leaves safety of campus protestors in doubt

Max Walpole, Contributing Writer

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who was a leader of the Columbia student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, was arrested by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 8 and is currently being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana, according to ABC.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement on X, alleging that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

President Donald Trump’s administration is currently working to deport Khalil in what Trump has said will be the “first arrest of many to come” of college students and faculty activists who protested against Israel, according to the New York Times.

As of yet, no arrests by ICE have been made on VCU’s campus. While the Richmond Police Department could not predict how they would respond if ICE arrested a VCU student or faculty member, the department is a local law enforcement agency that lacks the authority to perform the functions of ICE, according to James Mercante, director of public affairs of the RPD.

“The Richmond Police Department does not assist the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in enforcing federal immigration law,” Mercante said.

Michael Porter, associate vice president for public relations, said VCU is monitoring the impacts executive orders and changes to federal policy may have on the university and its community.

Sereen Haddad, a VCU student organizer and member of the leadership board of VCU’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, said she has no faith that VCU’s administration would protect their students from being arrested by ICE for participating in protests.

“I think that that speaks to the university in itself,” Haddad said. “I think that they 100% understand that students are worried, students are scared about what is happening right now. Yet, the university clearly does not care enough to reassure its students.”

Haddad said she found many of VCU’s faculty members to be responsive and supportive of her activism and concern for the safety of her fellow students, but the indifference towards the threat posed by ICE came from VCU’s administration.

“Our universities only prioritize profit over people, and they are 100 percent willing to rat their own students out and give their students to ICE if it means that they can get more federal funding,” Haddad said.

Haddad said she thinks that Khalil and other arrested activists were targeted by the government because they were shedding light on America’s complicity in the deaths of Palestinian civilians, an inconvenient truth Haddad said the government is working to suppress.

“That is something that our country and our universities are terrified of. I think our tax dollars, our own universities fund this genocide, and when we do demand divestment like we did peacefully at the encampment, we’re treated like criminals,” Haddad said.

Trump’s crackdown on college protests has made student activists who make up VCU’s pro-Palestine movement more committed to the cause, according to Haddad.

“I think the moment that the American public truly sees what is happening in Palestine, the system will crumble,” Haddad said. “We’re seeing these insanely desperate attempts of repression, these really, really desperate repression tactics happening like the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, that is when you know that truly it is the last act.”

The best thing people can do to support the movement for ending the violence in Gaza is to show up and speak out about Palestine, whether online through social media or in person by attending protests, according to Haddad.

“I encourage people to be on the right side of history right now because it really is now or never,” Haddad said.