Amid bursts of resistance, Trump administration squeezes colleges over pro-Palestinian protests as activist remains detained

The Trump administration is tightening its grip on efforts to quash pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses, even as a protest over the detention of activist Mahmoud Khalil flared at the president’s New York City residence and resistance efforts continue in the courts and beyond.

The Trump administration is tightening its grip on efforts to quash pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses, even as a protest over the detention of activist Mahmoud Khalil flared at the president’s New York City residence and resistance efforts continue in the courts and beyond. Khalil, a Palestinian refugee whose green card was revoked over his involvement with demonstrations last spring at Columbia University in New York City, remains in ICE custody in Louisiana. After attorneys failed to agree on a timeline for next steps in the case, Judge Jesse Furman set an 11:59 p.m. Friday deadline for Khalil’s legal team to submit a motion for his bail, court records show. The government will then have until Monday to respond. Trump, whose envoy is trying to negotiate an extension to the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, boasted this week on social media his administration had “proudly apprehended” Khalil, adding those who “support terrorism … are not welcome here.” But the government’s case has “no basis in law,” Khalil’s lawyer told CNN on Friday. “They kidnapped this man, this young student, father-to-be … based on an accusation that he has the wrong political ideas, and he has expressed them,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told Sara Sidner.