‘We’re gonna arrest your tail’: House Speaker berates detained Palestinian activist — but won’t point to a crime

WASHINGTON (CN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday would not say whether he believed a pro-Palestinian activist detained by ICE had committed a crime that would warrant his arrest or the Trump administration’s suggestion that it could take away his resident status. However, the top Republican lawmaker doubled down on that threat to protesters.

Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia University who was involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus last year, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend. Khalil is a lawful permanent resident with a green card and is married to a U.S. citizen.

A federal judge on Monday ruled that the administration cannot deport Khalil pending a court order, and an immigration judge is the only one who can revoke a green card. But that hasn’t stopped the White House and top officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio from suggesting that Khalil and others who have protested Israel’s war in Gaza could lose their lawful resident status.

Johnson told Courthouse News during a news conference that the Trump administration’s move to detain Khalil was an effort to “lay down the law,” and offered a stark warning to other campus demonstrators — though he focused on people who were in the country on student visas.

“I’m going to say this clearly: If you’re on a student visa, and you’re in America and you’re an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, you’re going home,” Johnson said. “We’re going to arrest your tail. We’re going to send you home where you belong.”

Johnson did not answer questions about whether Khalil had committed a crime that justified his arrest or detention. So far, the former Columbia University student has not been charged — and he argued in a court filing Sunday that his detention violated his First Amendment and Fifth Amendment rights.

The House speaker did say that he “appreciate[d]” the First Amendment, pointing to his time as an attorney at conservative Christian legal organization the Alliance Defending Freedom. But he cited his visit to Columbia last year during the protests, which he described as “dangerous” and an “angry mob.”

“This is far beyond the pale … when you are threatening your classmates and spewing antisemitism and all this hatred, it’s enough,” said Johnson. “I think the American people understand that and they’re supporting that.”

The top House Republican also framed Khalil as a “mastermind” behind the Columbia demonstrations.

The Student Workers of Columbia union called him a “lead negotiator” in their efforts to get the university to financially divest from Israel. The union did not immediately return a request for comment on Johnson’s remarks.

Amy Greer, an attorney from New York-based law firm Dratel & Lewis representing Khalil, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Khalil’s arrest is the realization of months of vitriol from Trump, Republicans and pro-Israel activists against demonstrators who they say are targeting Jewish students on campus and protesting in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

That dynamic was cemented by the president this week, who said that Khalil was the “first arrest of many to come.”

And Rubio wrote in a Thursday post on X that the U.S. has zero tolerance for “foreign visitors” who he said espouse support for terrorists. “Violators of U.S. law — including international students — face visa denial or revocation, and deportation,” he added.

Advocates, though, argue they are merely protesting Israel’s killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the two years following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which killed more than 1,000 Israelis.

A group of congressional Democrats, meanwhile, has called on the Trump administration to immediately release Khalil, writing in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that they were “horrified” by what they called an “illegal abduction and now indefinite detention.”

“Khalil has not been charged or convicted of any crime,” wrote the lawmakers led by Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib, who is the only Palestinian American member of Congress. “As the Trump administration proudly admits, he was targeted solely for his activism and organizing as a student leader and negotiator for the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Columbia University’s campus.”

The former Columbia University student is currently held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana.

According to his Sunday filing in the Southern District of New York, Khalil was taken into custody by federal agents Saturday evening outside his Columbia University-owned apartment. He was arrested even after he presented the agents with paperwork showing that he is a lawful permanent resident and that he has a green card.

Khalil’s lawyer Greer said she spoke to federal agents on the phone later that night, who told her that they were acting on orders from the State Department, which had revoked both his student visa and his green card.

A spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department told Courthouse News on Monday that Khalil was involved in activities “aligned to Hamas.”

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