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Fifth Column
A Dozen Arrests Made at the Latest 'Free Khalil' March
2025-03-12
[HotAir] College students in New York held various walkouts today so they would be free to spend the day protesting on behalf of pro-Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
 organizer Mamoud Khalil. It then became a gathering in Washington Square Park. The NY Post says there were about 350 people.

There were long, screechy speeches.

The group made their way to the NYC DHS building at which point police began to warn them about blocking the streets.

Again, the NYPD warns that protesters need to either keep marching or stay on the sidewalk. "You got two minutes. You gotta start moving again," the officer tells them. Their response is to literally slow-walk as they continue chanting.

Looks like a group of protesters decided to stand in the street holding hands and blocking traffic so police did start making arrests.

Arrests being made and marchers resisting arrest. It's FAFO time.

A dozen were arrested.

About a dozen protesters were cuffed as they clashed with NYPD officers during a demonstration in support of former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil Tuesday afternoon, law enforcement sources said.

Cops swarmed in to make arrests after throngs of protesters blocked a downtown Manhattan street, despite repeated warnings from police to clear the roadway.



The remnants of the group then marched toward Gracie Mansion.

Now it seems Mayor Adams is the focus of their attention.

Police were outnumbered and the mob pushed down the barricade and moved in.



At the last line of police barriers, marchers were told they would be arrested if they crossed.
From Fox News, courtesy of Skidmark:
A senior State Department official told Fox News that Rubio found Khalil's "presence and activities in the U.S. would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest, rendering him deportable under Section 237 (a)(4)(C) of the INA [Immigration & Nationality Act]."

The official said Section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act broadly contains grounds for which an alien who is in the U.S. after having been admitted or having had his or her status adjusted to that of lawful permanent resident may be removed.

Fox News is told that Section 237 (a)(4)(C) is a rarely used provision of the law that gives the secretary of state the power to seek to deport "[a]n alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States…"

The senior State Department official stressed this is about national security, not free speech.
It’s a bipartisan position, according to PJ Media:
In a statement on Monday, Trump reiterated that “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity” will not be tolerated, noting that many protesters on campuses are “paid agitators.” (The Department of Homeland Security and the White House declined to comment on further actions at any other schools or how many arrests may be made in the coming weeks.)

Trump is right about "paid agitators." On July 9, Joe Biden's Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been funding some of the pro-Hamas demonstrations. Haines said that the Iranian regime has “become increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts” and has “sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza.”
Skidmark gives us the Daily Mail’s take on the day here, with lots of photos, adding:
Dozens were arrested in New York City after swarming the streets to protest the arrest of 'pro-Hamas' rioter Mahmoud Khalil.

Student activists staged a sit-in at Columbia University on Tuesday, before hundreds of protestors descended on Washington Square Park, reported CBS News.

The group moved from the park, and marched through Lower Manhattan. Some protesters were arrested at City Hall, although police have not provided a total number of arrests as yet.
And from the NY Post:
Columbia University protest ringleader Mahmoud Khalil was being investigated as a potential national security threat, a source said Monday — as President Trump warned that the anti-Israel agitator’s bust will be the “first arrest of many.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was “presented with intelligence” that determined that Khalil — a Syrian-born Palestinian who received his graduate degree from the elite school in December — was a threat to national security, a White House source said.

It wasn’t immediately known what intelligence Rubio was shown. But the source said the Department of Homeland Security has been “gathering intel” on those “actively engaging in supporting Hamas” — not just everyday protesters — since Trump’s executive order cracking down on anti-Israel demonstrators in the US on green cards.

Khalil, 30, was arrested at his university-owned apartment on Saturday, and is now confined at Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana, according to ICE records and a statement by his attorney, Amy Greer.

“They’re staging this guy for removal, but I don’t know where they’re gonna send him. We don’t have charter flights to send him to Syria,” another source said.

A Manhattan federal judge temporarily halted Khalil’s deportation Monday after the Columbia grad filed a petition with the court alleging that ICE had detained him illegally.
A little more from the Times of Israel Except apparently habeus corpus petitions are supposed to be filed in district court where the prisoner is being held. That is to say, in Louisiana, not the Southern District (Manhattan) of New York. Today’s session in NYC should be interesting.
Khalil, who earned his graduate degree at the School of International and Public Affairs, was the lead negotiator for Columbia United Apartheid Divest — a group that sympathizes with terror organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and calls for the “end of Western civilization” — during last spring’s anti-Israel protests and student encampment at the university.

Related: White House: Columbia refusing to help ID those involved in campus antisemitism and are ‘pro-Hamas’
Related:
Mahmoud Khalil 03/11/2025 Protesters call for campus takeovers as Columbia activist threatened with deportation
Mahmoud Khalil 03/11/2025 Judge blocks anti-Israel Columbia agitator Mahmoud Khalil from deportation as politicians come to his defense
Mahmoud Khalil 03/10/2025 ICE arrests Palestinian leader of Columbia''s anti-Israel protests: lawyer

Posted by:Fred

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