AMNA NAWAZ: This weekend, a former student at Columbia University in New York was arrested by immigration authorities despite having a green card.

Mahmoud Khalil, who helped organize on-campus protests against Israel's attacks on Gaza as part of its war with Hamas, was seized, according to President Trump, for allegedly espousing pro-Hamas views.

William Brangham has our report.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Amna, this arrest is part of the Trump administration's crackdown on antisemitism, particularly on college campuses, which were convulsed by protests last year during the height of the Hamas-Israel war.

But officials have offered no evidence that Mr. Khalil broke any laws while at Columbia.

And, today, crowds gathered in New York City to protest his arrest.

For more on this, we are joined again by Abed Ayoub.

He's the national director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Abed, so good to have you back on the program.

We should say that a judge has ordered that Mr. Khalil cannot be deported until further court proceedings play out.

And a hearing about his arrest is scheduled for later this week.

But when you first heard about this seizure by immigration officials, what was your reaction?

ABED AYOUB, National Executive Director, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee: Thank you for having me on.

Look, the initial reaction was one of concern, deep concern, and disappointment, and concern not just only for Mahmoud, but concern for this country, that we are now going down a path where speech and expression is being criminalized this way.

And this should be alarming for all Americans, not only those that are standing up for Palestine and Palestinian rights.

This is an alarming happening right now in this country.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And the president today on TRUTH Social wrote that ICE apprehended Mr. Khalil because he is -- quote -- "a radical foreign pro-Hamas student" and that he's just one of many at Columbia and at other colleges, the president alleged, who have engaged in -- quote -- "pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity."

Now, as I said, the administration has not provided any details alleging that he has said or done any of those things.

We simply at this point do not know.

But what we do know is that he organized protests on Columbia.

He negotiated with Columbia University officials about those protests.

And some of those protests were quite intense.

That said, does any of the actions alleged here give the government the authority to deport someone and change their immigration status?

ABED AYOUB: Absolutely not.

The statements coming from the government are very heavy on accusations, but very light on evidence.

Nothing has been shown or proven to be true so far, and nothing will be shown or proven to be true.

The only thing Mr. Mahmoud has done that they don't like is the fact that he was part of these protests, organizing these protests and these rallies against the state of Israel and its actions.

And that seems to be a taboo topic that you can't talk about.

And, if you do, this is the situation you end up in.

All he did was exercise his First Amendment rights, his right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and that was enough to trigger the actions and to trigger what we're seeing now.

And, again, this should be concerning to all Americans that, in this country, I have the right to protest my own president, my own government, but I don't have the right to protest a foreign government or a foreign leadership.

That should raise many questions and red flags for all Americans.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The ACLU, among many other groups, have echoed this same criticism you're making.

The ACLU wrote today: "The First Amendment protects everyone in the U.S.

The government's actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate."

I'm just curious what you imagine will be the downstream consequences.

The president said today in his post on TRUTH Social that this was just the first of many arrests to come.

What do you foresee happening?

ABED AYOUB: Support for Mahmoud, by the way, is coming not just from the ACLU, but we have seen it across all political ideologies, from Ann Coulter coming out to say this shouldn't happen to the ACLU and to others in between.

What's going to happen now is, this is going to infringe and chill freedom of speech on campus.

You're going to have a lot of students that don't want to partake in activities or may be sitting out the next protest or the next rally, and it will have that chilling effect.

For Mahmoud directly, he's going to have to fight this in court and in front of the judge, and the right decision was made today by the judge in New York.

But he's got a long battle ahead of him.

But, right now, we have to focus on this policy, and the administration needs to understand that this is an issue that the president's base cares about, and they are going to -- if they keep pushing this way, they're going to overplay their hand and they're going to upset many in their base as well.

So this is not going to play out politically the way the president and administration thinks.

A lot of people are on the side of First Amendment rights, freedom of speech and freedom of expression in this country.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lastly, what would you want colleges and universities to do in response to this?

I mean, as you're aware, the Trump administration as part of this same crackdown on antisemitism recently revoked $400 million in grants to Columbia University, warned other schools that they could suffer a similar fate.

The Department of Education warned 60 colleges and universities today that, if they don't crack down on antisemitism, that they could face repercussions.

I mean, that is enormous pressure on these institutions, but what do you want them to do in this moment?

ABED AYOUB: The institutions need to do everything they can to protect their students, but at the same time foster an environment where you can debate ideas, exchange ideas and have conversations.

And that's what's happening here.

And if there's some dissent and if there's a group of students that may not agree with another group, that doesn't mean you bring in ICE and the federal government to get involved.

At the end of the day, the funds and the finances should not be a determining factor in ensuring that each student has the fundamental right for freedom of speech and expression their college campus.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Abed Ayoub, you thank you so much for being here.

ABED AYOUB: Thank you.

I appreciate it.