Protesters chain themselves to Columbia University campus gates to call for activists' release

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON

A group of protesters chained themselves on Monday to Columbia University’s campus gates demanding the release of two Palestinian student activists.

The protest at 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in New York City came a week after Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident and former student protest organizer at Columbia, was taken into custody at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in the state of Vermont during a citizenship interview.

Demonstrators also called for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and green card holder who was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on March 8 after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered the revocation of his student visa and green card.

They held signs saying "Free Our Brothers, Free Mahmoud, Free Mohsen," "Free Our Prisoners, Free Them All" and “Free All Our Political Prisoners" and chanted “We want justice, you say how? Free Mohsen Mahdawi now!”

Mahdawi is the ninth student from the school who is facing deportation as part of a campaign to remove international students involved in Palestinian solidarity movements.

It is part of a slew of executive actions by President Donald Trump to deport foreign nationals deemed to have "hostile attitudes" toward the US, including a crackdown on what he called antisemitism, which resulted in the deportation of foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian campus protests.