This Is The Reason The US Will Deport Students At Columbia University For Anti-Gaza War Demonstrators

JAKARTA - The United States (US) government accused US Columbia University students of participating in demonstrations against Israeli military aggression against Gaza named Mahmoud Khalil of being an employee of the UN aid agency for the Palestinian people, UNRWA.

On that pretext, it was the reason the US deported Khalil. Khalil is considered by the US to have hidden his activities of working at UNRWA through his Visa request.

Citing Reuters, UNRWA is known to be a UN aid agency providing food and health care humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. Israel accused 12 UNRWA employees of being involved in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. This caused the US to stop funding for UNRWA.

Khalil was detained by the administration of US President Donald Trump on March 8, 2025. Khalil is a figure of movement against military aggression in Palestine, especially in Gaza through demonstrations held on many campuses in New York in 2023.

As a result of his participation, Khalil was detained in New York and then placed in a US Immigration detention facility in the state of Louisiana.

The US Government's efforts have received public criticism because they are considered to interfere with the right to free speech that is being heralded by the superpower.

Khalil's supporters even said they had been targeted by the US Government because they publicly disagreed with US policies on Israel and its occupation of Gaza. Khalil calls himself a political prisoner.

A judge has ordered Khalil not to be deported. However, a lawsuit against Khalil detained or known as a habeas petition, was heard in another federal court.

Khalil is a native of Syria and an Algerian citizen, entering the US on a student visa in 2022 and then applying to become a permanent US resident by 2024.

In a summary of files that went to court on Sunday, March 23, the US Government explained its arguments to detain Khalil while the deportation process continues.

The reason for the first US Government is that the US District Court in New Jersey, where the habeas case is being tried, does not have jurisdiction.

The US court notice also accused Khalil of not including in his Visa's petition that he worked for a Syrian office at the British embassy in Beirut. Kahlil is also considered a member of the Columbia University apartheid Divest group.

A lawyer who is also director of Clear's legal clinic, Ramie Kassem, said the reasons for deportation made by the US Government were "obviously weak and fabricated."

"The government is trying hard to add it at the last moment, highlighting only how its motivation from the start was to take revenge on Mr. Khalil for his protected free speech in supporting Palestine's rights and livelihoods," Kassem said, quoted by the New York Times.