DHS arrests green-card holder Mahmoud Khalil under a foreign-policy deportation ground over his pro-Palestinian protests

Department of Homeland Security agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born legal permanent resident and Columbia University graduate who had led campus pro-Palestinian protests, on March 8, 2026, invoking INA § 237(a)(4)(C)(i) based on a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserting his presence caused "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences." DHS agents lacked an arrest warrant and acknowledged in court filings that they misrepresented having one; Khalil, who was married to a U.S. citizen, cooperated with agents. It marked the first time the Trump administration applied the foreign policy removal ground to a legal permanent resident — a provision that had sat unused since its 1990 enactment. An immigration judge ruled Khalil deportable, and he was transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana as his legal team filed habeas corpus petitions in federal court.