New York — With authorities detaining Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent pro-Palestine activist and a US resident, at Columbia University, igniting widespread outrage and protests, students of the Ivy League university say they are alarmed to see the brazen threat to free speech and the institute's role in bending to "authoritarianism."

"It's a lawless violation of basic civil rights. I did not expect them to go this far," says Simon Yacher, a Jewish student from Chile who is studying environmental science and policy at Columbia University. 

"It is certainly dangerous for Palestine advocates, foreign students, American citizens and universities," Yacher warns. 

Khalil, a green card holder and a recent Columbia University graduate who helped lead a pro-Palestine encampment last April, was arrested on Saturday at his university-owned residence in New York. 

Amy Greer, Khalil’s lawyer, says he was "wrongfully arrested" by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who claimed his student visa was revoked — even though he is a legal permanent resident and not in the US on a student visa. 

Khalil, who faces expulsion unless courts intervene in his favour, is married to a US citizen who is eight months pregnant.

President Donald Trump has defended Khalil's arrest, calling him a "foreign pro-Hamas student" and stating it was "the first arrest of many to come".

'Next in line could be naturalised US citizens'

Students at Columbia fear the Trump administration after protesting Israel's genocidal war in Gaza and US complicity since October 2023, concerned they may face repercussions like Khalil.

Inside the university, many non-Jewish students fear government reprisals could widen after Khalil's "unprecedented."

"They have already been attempting to deport students on visas for their participation in Palestinian activism. But attempting to revoke a green card and expedite a deportation on political protest grounds is unprecedented," says a student leader, citing the 2024 case of Momodou Taal at Cornell University. 

Taal, a PhD scholar, was suspended on September 23 for protesting against arms manufacturers. He later achieved a partial victory against de-enrollment and deportation.

"If we are to continue in this direction, it's not far-fetched to see that the next in line would be naturalised US citizens who express political opposition to the government, who were born elsewhere and gained US citizenship here," she says.

"I hope it doesn't get to that point but there's a very real risk, and we have historical precedence and parallels in this kind of shift in government in Nazi Germany."

Another student described Khalil's arrest as an "unacceptable escalation" by the Trump administration "attempting to test what is permissible among the public."

"The political targeting of a Palestinian activist by the US-Israeli state, which is one and the same. If it wasn't clear enough, they made it very clear the US has entered full authoritarianism."

University students have also accused the former Biden administration of complicity in Gaza's genocide and fostering repression against anti-war activists in the US.

"The past one and half years under the Democratic Biden administration, which is ostensibly supposedly the party for the people (it's not), was already setting the ground for this," a protest leader says. 

"Forget just expulsions and green cards, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a recent graduate of University of Washington in Seattle was assassinated in Israel and Biden's admin didn't lift a finger. I'm under no false impression that our current government does not care if their political dissidents die and actually wish for it, even if we're citizens."

Eygi, the 26-year-old activist for Palestine, was shot dead by Israeli troops last year while protesting against illegal Israeli settlements in Beita, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

'I will never forgive Columbia'

While hundreds of demonstrators have rallied across the US to demand the release of Khalil, US lawmakers and civil rights organisations have taken to social media to criticise his arrest.

A petition calling for Khalil's release had amassed over 2.8 million signatures by Wednesday afternoon.

The petition attributes the situation to Columbia University's compliance with the US administration, Zionist groups in America, and doxing sites like Canary Mission.

On Monday, Columbia's interim president, Katrina Armstrong, assured the campus of a strong commitment to free expression, denying any request for federal immigration agents to raid the school.

Many students involved in anti-war protests feel the Ivy League university fails to protect them.

"I am incredibly angry at Columbia for failing to protect its students. I feel that I am inside a militarised prison complex that is policing and surveilling its students," says a student.

"As a student, I will never forgive Columbia. Khalil reached out for legal protection and the university failed to take action. Clearly, Columbia has no qualms about sacrificing their students due to their servility to a fascist government."

Another student says, "It's unconscionable and a deep stain on Columbia for not protecting its own students in exercising their rights to speech, expression and assembly."

"The Department of Homeland Security has already taken the sad step of taking in a lawful resident against his will. They do so under the guise of combating anti-Semitism, but that seems more like a convenient excuse to apply their oppressive thumb."