White House allegedly asked for updates on arrest of activist Mahmoud Khalil, his attorney says

Mahmoud Khalil — the pro-Palestinian activist and green card holder detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week — said he overheard federal agents say that the White House was asking for an update on his detention, his attorneys said.

“He was surrounded by many DHS agents, or people he believed to be DHS agents, and he believes that he saw or heard, during a call, one of them say that the White House wants an update on what’s going on,” Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who is representing Khalil, said at a press conference Friday.

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

Khalil took part in student protests at Columbia University calling for the institution to divest and cut ties with Israel, and he participated in negotiations with university administration.

“His one and only goal was to get Columbia University to divest from its complicity with Israeli government crimes in Gaza and the West Bank,” said Ramzi Kassem, the director of CLEAR, a group representing Khalil.

The White House and Columbia University did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Columbia University said in a statement Thursday, “We will continue to work to support our community, including protecting the privacy of our students, during this challenging time and we remain steadfastly committed to our values and our mission.”

The Trump administration has claimed that Khalil distributed “pro-Hamas propaganda fliers with the logo of Hamas,” without providing evidence.

“I have those fliers on my desk, they were provided to me by the Department of Homeland Security,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

“All of this talk of flyers is just nonsense, there is no truth to it whatsoever,” Kassem said.

Khalil’s attorneys said their briefing on the motion to compel the government to return Khalil to New York should be finished by early next week. His attorneys hope the judge will make a decision sometime next week.

“Mahmoud was moved across multiple state lines and subsequently transferred to a remote prison in Louisiana hours after filing his habeas petition, an intentional and retaliatory act and an attempt to interfere with the jurisdiction of the New York court,” Sisay said.

In the weeks leading up to his arrest, Khalil said he had been fearing for his safety as he and other Columbia University students advocating for the rights of Palestinians experienced increased doxing and harassment, his attorneys said.

“It’s like an almost daily occurrence where Twitter, social media posts showing photographs of students, identifying where they’re located, where they live, who they’re associated with, while tagging ICE, while tagging DHS, while tagging the president, tagging the Secretary of State,” Amy Greer, an attorney with Dratel & Lewis who is representing Khalil, said Friday.

“He’s genuinely fearful that what’s happened to him will happen to others,” Greer said.

Khalil’s attorneys accused the Trump administration of retaliating against Khalil for his protests and activism in support of Palestinians arguing his speech is protected by the First Amendment.

“The Trump administration is taking an extraordinarily broad and unconstitutional view of how the material support for terrorism laws apply in these contexts,” Brian Hauss, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU, said at the press conference.

“The Supreme Court was very clear in a case called Holder vs Humanitarian Law Project that the federal material supported terrorism laws do not apply to independent advocacy, even when that advocacy is explicitly supportive of a foreign designated terrorist organization, say a statement saying, ‘I support Hamas,’ if that statement is not coordinated with a foreign designated terrorist organization it is protected by the First Amendment,” Hauss said.

The First Amendment also protects the freedom of speech of individuals who are not American citizens, Hauss said. Khalil is a permanent resident of the U.S.

“Trump administration is punishing Mr. Khalil for his speech about Palestine. It is silencing him, and it is setting him up as an example to chill the millions of green card holders and other non-citizens around the country from saying anything that might draw President Trump’s ire. That is textbook First Amendment retaliation,” Hauss said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday on X that the department “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

Khalil’s attorneys have denied that Khalil has any ties to Hamas and said his activism has been in support of Palestinian rights.

Hauss added, “If the administration can do this to Mr. Khalil because of his speech about Palestine, it can do it to any non-citizen who takes a position on hot button global issues, including the war between Russia and Ukraine, the tariffs being imposed against U.S. allies, or the rise of far right political parties in Europe.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Khalil was detained by ICE “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”

“Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” McLaughlin said in a statement Sunday night.