Court document claims ‘potentially serious foreign policy consequences’ amid outcry over Palestinian activist’s arrest

The US government is relying on a rarely used provision of the law to try to deport a prominent Palestinian activist who recently completed his graduate studies at Columbia University, where he was a leader in last year’s campus protests.

A government charging document addressed to Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident and green card holder who is currently being held in a Louisiana detention center, said that secretary of state Marco Rubio “has reasonable ground to believe that your presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

Zahra Tabatabai’s Back Home Beer features select Middle Eastern flavors, and she’s looking to expand its reach nationally

Business heats up for Zahra Tabatabai in March, the month of Nowruz, the 13-day Persian new year festival, which begins this year on 20 March. The Iranian American Brooklynite’s craft beers are infused with Middle Eastern flavors such as sumac and sour cherry, and packaged in design-forward cans featuring poetry in intricate Farsi lettering.

Tabatabai’s grandfather used to make his own beer with ingredients from his garden in Shiraz, before the Iranian government instituted a ban on alcohol consumption in 1979. More recently, her grandmother longed to taste her husband’s beer again, so Tabatabai set out to satisfy her yen. During the Covid-19 pandemic, while working as a freelance writer and overseeing the home schooling of her son, who is now 11, she started looking at recipes and enrolled in a home-brewing class, and began watching YouTube videos about the art of making beer.

Key figure in pro-Palestinian campus protests arrested by Ice known for kindness and skill for de-escalation

Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia University graduate who was detained by Ice on Saturday night, was linked by Donald Trump, without evidence, to “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity”. But for those who know him, Khalil was a student, a steady negotiator and a leader whose activism placed him at the center of a national movement for Palestinian solidarity.

Khalil, a Palestinian green card holder who is currently in immigration detention in Louisiana, was a lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a role that thrust him into the spotlight during the pro-Palestinian encampment protests last spring – long before his high-profile arrest. He gained a reputation among fellow protesters as a principled and strategic organizer, earning praise for his ability to de-escalate tense situations.

Mahmoud Khalil was detained by Ice agents on Saturday, part of Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protesters

Mahmoud Khalil’s wife, who is now eight months pregnant, issued a statement on Tuesday night after the Columbia University graduate student and activist was arrested in New York by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) as part of the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke his green card and have him deported.

“I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration,” Khalil’s wife, who is a US citizen, said in her statement, remaining anonymous for fear of harassment.