Columbia disciplines students for protests as activists seek to block school from sharing records

Columbia Univerity graduate Mahmoud Khalil and seven current students sued the school Thursday in a bid to block it from producing disciplinary records to a House committee as school officials said they were sanctioning students involved in pro-Palestinian rallies last spring.  

Khalil, a green card holder and Palestinian activist who played a major role in student protests against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, was arrested over the weekend and is being held in a Louisiana detention center as immigration authorities seek to deport him.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that the committee’s request for the records violates the First Amendment and that the university’s compliance with the committee constitutes a breach of contract.

Columbia officials declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Just as the suit was filed, the university announced “multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations and expulsions” for those who participated in the occupation of Hamilton Hall at the school’s New York City campus.

The university did not say how many students it had disciplined.

Dozens of protesters calling for Khalil’s release were arrested at a sit-in at Trump Tower in New York City.

Last week, the Trump administration said it would cancel nearly $400 million in federal grants to the university “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

Soon after, Columbia committed to engaging with Trump officials in hope of restoring the lost federal funds.

“We are reviewing the announcement from the federal agencies and pledge to work with the federal government to restore Columbia’s federal funding. We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combating antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty and staff,” a spokesperson for the university said last week.

In seeking Khalil’s deportation, federal officials have cited a rarely used provision in immigration law that gives the secretary of state the authority to deport someone if it is determined that the person “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” 

The Department of Homeland Security has said Khalil’s activities “aligned” with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he had distributed “pro-Hamas propaganda” at Columbia’s campus.

A lawyer for Khalil, Samah Sisay, said that the arrest violates his free speech rights and that there is no evidence he provided support to a terrorist organization.

“There is no reason to believe, and I don’t think anybody who knows him would argue otherwise or suggest, that he would have any connection with any of these entities, but that’s also not what he stands for,” she said.

Khalil, 30, is an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent who is married to a U.S. citizen and is a legal permanent resident of the United States.

His wife, who is eight months pregnant, said in a statement this week that “Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all.”