Trying to deport Khalil for demonstrating against Israel is an obvious violation of his rights and an attempt to intimidate others, they say.

Lawyers said the Palestinian student activist was handcuffed, shackled and flown to Louisiana by agents he said never identified themselves.

I was a student at Columbia University, where I covered tense campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war for the college newspaper and for POLITICO. So I’m familiar with Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student who I’ve chatted with in the past and appears to be the first target of the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on student protesters.