US Detains Columbia University Student Demonstrators Of Gaza War, Forms Of Anti-Palestinian Racism?

The demonstration lustration calls for humanity in Gaza, Palestine. (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - A Columbia University student who was arrested by the United States (US) police and threatened with deportation for being a participant in a demonstration protesting Israel's attack on Gaza, Palestine, spoke up.

The student, Mahmoud Khalil, considers his detention to be a form of anti-Palestinian racism by the US Government of the Joe Biden to Donald Trump era.

"My unfair detention is an indication of anti-Palestinian racism that the Biden and Trump administration has shown over the past 16 months as the US continues to supply weapons to Israel to kill Palestinians and prevent international intervention," Khalil wrote in a letter disseminated by his lawyer, quoted from AP, Wednesday 19 March.

Columbia University in New York is one of many campuses in the US to hold demonstrations in 2024 to reject Israel's military invasion of Gaza. The student action, which was held in the campus environment, spread to the line of universities in Europe to Latin America.

Khalil, who is being held at the Louisiana Immigration Immigration, considers himself to be part of a greater effort to suppress the voices of humanity in Palestine.

"For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has prompted efforts to expand US laws and practices used to oppress Palestinians, Americans, and other communities with violence. That's exactly why I was targeted," Khalil said.

In this case, Khalil and the US Federal Government have argued at length in court over the actions of the Donald Trump Government sending him to a detention facility in Louisiana.

The US government argued that there were no immigration facilities near its campus in New York, thus holding it deep to the US state of Louisiana.

Previously, Khalil made a statement about a "rotten shirt" which was later attached to documents in court. Khalil's lawyer then requested that his client be released on temporary guarantees. The reason his lawyer, Khalil, did not violate the First Amendment.

Khalil's lawyers also asked judges to consider the impact of the US Government's order on its officials to arrest, detain and transfer non-US citizens involved in expressive activities in supporting Palestinian rights or criticizing Israel. Freedom of expression is confirmed to be constitutionally protected in the US.

Early Detention

In court documents, it was stated that Khalil's arrest began on March 8, 2025. He was taken to Louisiana after being detained overnight at a detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, close to New York.

Khalil said he was taken by Elizabeth and then put in a van. When asked if he would be returned to the FBI headquarters in Manhattan, where he was detained before Elizabeth, officers said otherwise.

"I was told, 'no, we're going to your airport.' I was afraid they were trying to deport me," he recalled.

Furthermore, while being detained at Elizabeth's detention facility, Khalil, in a letter he wrote, was disseminated on Tuesday, March 18 yesterday, assessing that her detention was a pressure on civil freedom of expression in a country that she said upholds democracy.

"I see that in my circumstances there is a resemblance to the use of administrative detention by Israel - imprisonment without a trial or indictment - to seize the rights of Palestinians," Khalil said.

"For Palestinians, imprisonment without a legal process is a common thing," he continued.