Americas

Americas

US authorities arrest Palestinian student protester at Columbia University

10 March 2025 00:31 (UTC +04:00)

Agents from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration arrested a Palestinian graduate student who played a prominent role in last year's pro-Palestinian protests at New York's Columbia University, the student workers' labor union said on Sunday, APA reports citing Reuters.

The student, Mahmoud Khalil at the university's School of International and Public Affairs, was arrested by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents at his university residence on Saturday, the Student Workers of Columbia union said in a statement.

Khalil has been one of the lead negotiators with school administrators on behalf of the pro-Palestinian student protesters, some of whom set up a tent encampment on a Columbia lawn last year and seized control of an academic building for several hours in April before police entered the campus to arrest them. Khalil was not in the group that occupied the building, but was a mediator between Columbia provosts and the protesters.