The teacher said

Professor Michael Thaddeus said the arrest and threat of deportation of student activists at Columbia University is a threat to freedom of speech on campus and across the United States.

Columbia Mathematics Professor tells happen Host Nil Koksal.

“This seems to be a clear case.”

Thaddeus is one of several faculty members of the New York school and speaks on behalf of Mahmoud Khalil. He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents Because he protested on campus against Israel’s role in Gaza’s military movement.

U.S. permanent resident Khalil was arrested Saturday in his university-owned apartment before his pregnant wife and taken to a Louisiana detention center.

The arrest was triggered by an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump, vowing to relate to the anti-Semitism character he played on campus, and expelled Pro-Palestinian student protesters and labeled them “Hamas sympathizers.”

what happened?

Khalil of Palestinian origin came to the United States with a student visa in 2022 and became a permanent resident last year.

He completed his master’s degree in public administration in December 2024 and is scheduled to graduate in May, according to court documents.

He was a prominent member and negotiator of the Colombian protest movement against Israeli military movement in Gaza.

Trump alleged on social media without evidence that Khalil supported the Palestinian radical group Hamas, a strong denial by activist lawyers.

When Khalil was first arrested, officials threatened to revoke his student visa and deport him. When he corrected that they actually had a green card, they said they would revoke that.

A federal judge temporarily blocked Harrier’s deportation on Monday, while his lawyer challenged the constitutionality of his arrest.

At the first court hearing in New York City on Wednesday in New York City, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled that activists must be allowed to call privately with their lawyers.

Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer for Khalil, said his client allowed his legal team to call only with the Louisiana legal team in immigration detention, saying it was recorded and monitored by the government and cut off prematurely.

Government attorney Brandon Waterman said he has not yet realized any issues Khalil has had contact with his lawyers but will investigate.

The scene outside the court was tense, with hundreds of protesters gathering with signs that read “Release Mahmoud Khalil” and chanting “For deportation, liberation upward, shouting downward.”

Cut Colombia’s funding

Meanwhile, back on campus, a representative of the Columbia chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) met with Katrina Armstrong, the university’s interim president.

Thaddeus, vice president of the Colombia chapter, said he and his colleagues urged Armstrong to support Khalil, but to no avail.

“The university government is very silent about the issue of this arrest,” he said.

He suspected that the reason was related to money. The Trump administration has suspended $400 million in the U.S. in federal grants and contracts to Colombia, due to anti-Semitism allegations related to pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

Thaddeus said the cuts and arrests were “two-control attacks” by the Trump administration against Colombia.

“The federal government has a lot of leverage on us,” Taders said.

Nevertheless, he urged the government, faculty and students to speak out.

“Whatever we do, no matter what we say, this leverage will be imposed on us,” he said. “So we may also know that, stand up and have the courage to believe in our faith.”

Columbia University did not respond to multiple CBC requests for comment.

Other professors and their representatives also opposed Khalil’s arrest and fund cuts, both of which have created calmness in freedom of speech and academic freedom.

Reinhold Martin, president of the AAUP Columbia chapter, said in a statement that the cuts in funding had nothing to do with anti-Semitism, which was related to “suppression of dissent and privatizing research on government support.”

AAUP calls on Khalil to release it immediately.

Marianne Hirsch, the child of the Holocaust survivor, grew up in Romania, said Harrier’s arrest brought her “the most painful childhood nightmare.”

Hirsch Said at a press conference on Monday.

The wife said, “Mahmoud is my rock.”

Mahmoud’s wife, an eight-month-old American citizen, issued a statement through her husband’s attorney. They did not reveal her name.

“Mahmoud is my rock, he is my home, he is my happy place,” the statement said.

“For all those who read this article, I urge you to see Mahmoud come to our kids’ eyes as a loving husband and future father. I need your help bringing Mahmoud home, so he is next to me and put my hands in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world. Please release Mahmoud.”