A crowd of hundreds gathered outside the headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Southwest D.C. on Monday.
Police shut down a section of the street for them and carefully guarded the building.
“We are out here to demand the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and all the other students who have been unlawfully detained,” Palestinian Youth Movement organizer Anyssa Dhaouadi said.
Mahmoud Khalil is a Columbia University graduate student who helped lead protests against the war in Gaza last year.
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ICE arrested him in March, causing an uproar.
The Trump administration believes the 30-year-old poses a national security threat to the U.S. On Friday, an immigration judge sided with the administration, saying Khalil could be deported.
“The justification that was given to for abducting Mahmoud is sketchy at best,” a demonstrator named Gotham said. “… I think it’s important to speak out against what’s going on. People are being penalized for exercising their freedom of speech.”
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This protest was organized by a grassroots organization called Palestinian Youth Movement. The demonstration was not only about Khalil, but also the ongoing war.
“We’re not backing down,” Gotham said. “We’re not going to stop speaking up for Palestine, and we’re not going to stop exercising our first amendment rights.”
The Palestinian Youth Movement has been holding protests like this one about once a week. They say they will continue to hold them until the Trump administration makes the changes they want to see.
