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A recently released<\/span> FBI file shines new light on the days immediately leading up to the arrest of then-Columbia University student and Palestinian rights activist Mahmoud Khalil.<\/p>\n On March 6 of last year, two days before unidentified officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement abducted and arrested Khalil at his home, the FBI received an anonymous tip claiming that Khalil, listed incorrectly as a 22-year-old, had called for \u201cviolence on behalf of Hamas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the heavily redacted documents, as of March 19, 2025, the FBI had closed an investigation into the tip and determined that Khalil \u201cdoes not warrant further FBI investigation.\u201d But by then, ICE had already secretly taken Khalil<\/a>, now 31, thousands of miles away to a detention center in Louisiana<\/a>. Despite the FBI\u2019s decision to close the tip, the Trump administration continued to paint Khalil<\/a> as a \u201cHamas supporter\u201d and a threat to national security<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if the FBI tip was directly related to Khalil\u2019s ICE arrest, and the FBI did not respond to The Intercept\u2019s question about whether the tip was shared with ICE. But Hamid Bendaas, a spokesperson at the Institute for Middle East Understanding, which has worked with Khalil since his arrest, said the timing reflects \u201ca threat to us all.\u201d<\/p>\n Though the FBI document says Khalil did not warrant further investigation, \u201cthat didn\u2019t stop ICE from holding him in a detention center and separating him from his wife and newborn son for months,\u201d Bendaas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The document comes to light as the Trump administration has fast-tracked Khalil\u2019s deportation case<\/a>, which Khalil\u2019s legal team argues is a form of retaliation<\/a> against his protected political speech in support of Palestine. Khalil\u2019s team received the FBI document, which has not been previously reported, via a lawsuit over a public records request and shared it exclusively with The Intercept.<\/p>\n Khalil was the first of thousands<\/a> of students the Trump administration targeted for deportation over First Amendment-protected speech in support of Palestine or criticizing Israel. The Trump administration exploited an obscure provision<\/a> in immigration law to claim that Khalil and other students, including Mohsen Mahdawi<\/a> and R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk<\/a>, presented a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who ordered Khalil to be deported, has repeatedly claimed that he sympathized with terrorists<\/a>, echoing claims from far-right doxing groups<\/a> that had targeted Khalil in the months leading up to his arrest. Trump\u2019s unprecedented crackdown came after years of similar attacks on pro-Palestine students that gained speed under former President Joe Biden<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUnder Trump\u2019s rogue presidency being led by extremists and conspiracy theorists,\u201d Bendaas said, \u201cany of us can be kidnapped by federal agents in the middle of the night simply for speaking against U.S. support for Israel\u2019s genocide, no matter what the facts or Constitution says.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n