The White House would have asked for updates on the arrest of activist Mahmoud Khalil, says his lawyer

Mahmoud Khalil – Pro -Palestinian activist and holder of green cards owned by immigration and customs application this week – said that he heard federal agents say that the White House asked for an update on his detention, said his lawyers.

“He was surrounded by many agents of the DHS, or of people he believed to be DHS agents, and he believes he has seen or heard, during an appeal, one of them says that the White House wants an update on what is happening,” said Samah Sisay, lawyer at the center of the center for constitutional rights that represents Khalil, during a press conference on Friday.

“We have every reason to believe, as we allege in the petition, that many people in the government’s executive branch were involved, including the White House,” said Sisay.

Khalil participated in student demonstrations at Columbia University calling for the institution to give in and cut links with Israel, and he participated in negotiations with the university administration.

“His one and only objective was to ensure that Columbia University is deposited with its complicity with the crimes of the Israeli government in Gaza and in the West Bank,” said Ramzi Kassem, director of Clear, a group representing Khalil.

The White House and Columbia University did not immediately respond to the request for comments from ABC News.

The University of Columbia said Thursday in a statement: “We will continue to work to support our community, in particular the protection of the privacy of our students, during this difficult period and we remain firmly engaged in our values ​​and our mission.”

The Trump administration said Khalil had distributed “pro-Hamas propaganda fllets with the Hamas logo”, without providing evidence.

“I have these leaflets on my desk, they were provided to me by the Ministry of Internal Security,” said the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt.

“All this discourse on leaflets is simply absurd, there is no truth,” said Kassem.

Khalil lawyers said their briefing on the request forcing the government to return Khalil to New York is expected to be completed next week. His lawyers hope that the judge will make a decision next week.

“Mahmoud was moved to several state lines and then transferred to a distant prison in Louisiana after having tabled his request for Habeas, an intentional and reprisals and an attempt to interfere with the jurisdiction of the New York Court,” said Sisay.

In the weeks preceding his arrest, Khalil said he feared for his security while he and other students from the University of Columbia pleading for the rights of the Palestinians experienced increased harassment and harassment, said lawyers.

“It is like an almost daily event where Twitter, publications on social networks showing photographs of students, identifying where they live, where they live, with whom they are associated, while marking ice, while marking the DHS, while scoring the president, marking the secretary of state,” said Amy Greer, a lawyer & Lewis who represents Khalil, said on Friday.

“He is really afraid that what happened to him to happen to others,” said Greer.

Khalil lawyers accused the Trump administration of retaliation against Khalil for his demonstrations and his activism in support of the Palestinians arguing that his speech is protected by the first amendment.

“The Trump administration has an extraordinarily broad and unconstitutional vision of the way in which material support for the laws on terrorism applies in this context,” said Brian Hauss, Senior Aclu lawyer at the press conference.

“The Supreme Court was very clear in a case called Holder vs Humanitarian Law Project that federal laws on terrorism supported by equipment do not apply to independent plea, even when this plea is explicitly favorable to a foreign designated terrorist organization, affirms a declaration,” I support Hamas “, if this declaration is not coordinated.

The first amendment also protects the freedom of expression of individuals who are not American citizens, Hard said. Khalil is a permanent resident of the United States

“The Trump administration punishes Mr. Khalil for his speech on Palestine. It silenced him, and it gives him as an example to cool the millions of holders of green and other non-citizens through the country to say that everything that could attract the anger of President Trump. That is to say the reprisals of the textbooks in the first amendment,” said Hauss.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on Sunday on X that the department “would revoke the visas and / or the green cards of Hamas supporters in America so that they can be expelled”.

Khalil’s lawyers have denied that Khalil has links with Hamas and said his activism had supported Palestinian rights.

Hauss has added: “If the administration can do so to Mr. Khalil because of his speech on Palestine, he can do it to any non-citizen who takes a position on the global issues of hot button, in particular the war between Russia and Ukraine, the prices imposed against the American allies or the rise of far-right political parties in Europe.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Khalil had been arrested by ice “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”

“Khalil managed the activities aligned with Hamas, an designated terrorist organization,” McLaughlin said in a statement on Sunday evening.