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A day after at least 250 people protested at Chicago\u2019s Federal Plaza the arrest and possible deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, an activist who helped lead Columbia University\u2019s pro-Palestinian encampment in New York, civil rights groups called for his release.<\/p>\n
\u201cMahmoud\u2019s case is not just about one individual,\u201d said Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of Chicago\u2019s Council on American-Islamic Relations. \u201cIt is whether the White House can summarily abduct legal residents and deport them for holding personal or political opinions that might not please the current ruler. It is very much about the heart and soul of American democracy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Rehab called the situation at a news conference downtown a \u201ctrue test\u201d to the nation\u2019s democracy and a \u201cweaponization\u201d of the federal immigration system. Demonstrators Tuesday rallied behind signs that read \u201cProtecting students is freedom of speech.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n One speaker drew a parallel between Khalil\u2019s detention and the long-promised and much-publicized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that marked the earliest weeks of President Donald Trump\u2019s second term, saying officials had \u201cused his immigration status as a weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe want justice, you say how?\u201d the protesters chanted. \u201cRelease Mahmoud Khalil now.\u201d<\/p>\n ICE officers on Saturday arrested Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate with a green card, accusing him of leading \u201cactivities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.\u201d Khalil, who is Palestinian, represented student activists last spring as they negotiated with Columbia administrators over an end to the encampment that sprang up on campus in opposition to Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n Trump declared on social media that Khalil would be \u201cthe first arrest of many\u201d in a crackdown on student activism against the war, which is currently subject to a fragile ceasefire. Trump\u2019s administration warned Monday of potential enforcement actions against Columbia, Northwestern University and 58 other colleges and universities across the country \u201cif they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus,\u201d according to a news release from the Department of Education.<\/p>\n Khalil will remain detained in Louisiana until at least next week following an initial court hearing in New York on Wednesday.<\/p>\n To Robert Sharp, who attended the demonstration with his daughter and granddaughter, Khalil\u2019s \u201cunjust arrest and seizure\u201d was a frightening sign of what he described as \u201clawlessness\u201d from the new administration.<\/p>\n \u201cCampus protest has to be permitted,\u201d said Sharp, 74.<\/p>\n Sharp, who lives in the Loop, said he and his family hurried to get their shoes on when they heard of the protest. It\u2019s at least his third in the last two weeks, he said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear to Ed Yohnka, the ACLU of Illinois\u2019 director of communications and public policy, that Khalil is being punished because \u201cpeople in power don\u2019t like what he said,\u201d despite the Constitution guaranteeing his right to \u201cspeak freely\u201d and \u201coppose government policy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is not American,\u201d he said Wednesday. \u201cIt is not what makes America great, and it is not constitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n