Video shows arrest of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil in front of pregnant wife

Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on Mar 14, 2025

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NEW YORK — A video released on Friday afternoon reveals the moment Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil was taken into custody in front of his eight-months pregnant wife.

The eight-minute clip, released by his attorneys, shows plainclothes immigration authorities confronting the married couple in the lobby of their university-owned residence on the night of Saturday, March 8. How the agents got inside the building was not clear from the video.

The agents confront Khalil, saying: “You’re gonna be under arrest, so turn around.”

Khalil, 30, a recent international relations graduate student of Palestinian descent, served as a negotiator during last year’s campus protests against Israeli military activity in Gaza. A green card holder, he is currently being detained in Louisiana after a federal judge paused attempts to deport him.

The Trump administration has not accused Khalil of breaking any laws but said his participation in the demonstrations against Columbia’s investment ties to Israel make him a terrorist sympathizer. His arrest and detainment have sparked nationwide protests about free speech under President Donald Trump.

In the video, Khalil is holding his phone as agents start to place him in handcuffs. He tries to hand the device to his wife, Noor Abdalla, so she can speak with a lawyer who had been advising him for the last half year as he was under university investigation. An agent instructs him: “Stop resisting.”

“He’s not resisting, he’s giving me his phone. I understand, he’s not resisting,” Abdalla responds.

The agents place Khalil’s arms behind his back and cuff him, ordering, “You’re gonna have to come with us.”

“I’m coming with you. Don’t worry,” he replies.

His wife, who can be heard sniffling or in tears during various points of the video, tries to persuade the agents her husband is cooperating. “You guys really don’t need to be doing all of that,” Abdalla says.

“It’s fine,” Khalil assures his wife, as they lead him to an unmarked car.

Outside of the apartment building, Abdalla attempts to get more information for Khalil’s lawyer — the agents’ names, where Khalil is going, and what agency they are from — to little avail. The agents confirm they are taking her husband to 26 Federal Plaza, the Jacob K. Javits federal office building, in lower Manhattan. Abdalla is repeatedly directed to stay on the sidewalk.

“Did they tell you they revoked his green card, is that what they said?” she can be heard pleading. “Can they do that?”

The video was released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which recently joined the case arguing for Khalil’s return to New York and ultimate release.

“If the First Amendment means anything,” Brian Hauss, an attorney at the ACLU, said, “it means that the government can’t abduct you from your home and your family in the middle of the night, throw you in detention halfway across the country, and revoke your green card — just because it doesn’t like what you have to say.”

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