Trump border czar Tom Homan makes stunning threat to green card holders amid massive immigration crackdown
Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said that Mahmoud Khalil could be the first of many green cards holders to be deported amid his widespread crackdown on legal and illegal immigrants.
President Trump boasted about the arrest of Khalil earlier Monday, warning it was ‘the first of many to come’ – even though Khalil is a legal resident who has not been convicted of a crime.
Khalil – a Palestinian who was born and raised in Syria – helped to lead protests against Israel at Columbia University last year. He also acted as a negotiator between students and university officials.
A judge has since stepped in to temporarily block the deportation of the 27-year-old pro-Palestine activist, pending a further ruling on the matter.
Homan, who has led Trump’s agenda on the border at full force, said that ‘absolutely we can’ deport green card holders such as Khalil.
‘Did he violate the terms of his visa? Did he violate the terms of his residency here, you know, committing crimes, attacking Israeli students, locking down buildings, destroying property? Absolutely,’ he told Fox Business.
However, Khalil has yet to be convicted of a crime, which complicates Homan’s assertion that he violated his visas terms.
Nevertheless, Homan reiterated that Khalil could be just the first of many visa holders sent packing.
‘Any resident alien who commits a crime is eligible for deportation,’ he said of anti-Israel protesters on American campuses. ‘And that’s just one out of many.’
Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said that Mahmoud Khalil could be the first of many immigrants who may be deported despite having green cards
President Trump boasted about the arrest of Khalil earlier Monday, warning likeminded activists it was ‘the first of many to come’ as he embarks on his mass deportation policy
Khalil was detained by ICE officers on Saturday night – who said they’d been given an order to revoke his green card – in front of his pregnant wife.
But a federal judge Jesse Furman, from the Southern District of New York, poured cold water on Trump’s plan on Monday.
Furman blocked the administration from deporting Khalil until at least the next court hearing on Wednesday.
The court order, seen by DailyMail.com, states: ‘To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise.’
Furman was nominated to the Southern District court by President Obama in 2011 and was confirmed in February 2012.
The protests at Columbia were allowed to run rampant for two weeks. They were marked by violent assaults and instances of Jewish students being afraid to go to class.
‘On March 9, 2025, in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student,’ the Department of Homeland Security said Sunday.
‘Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,’
Trump said the ICE agents who arrested Khalil did so with pride, describing him as ‘a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University.
Mahmoud Khalil, who was the lead student negotiator for the pro-Palestinian encampment, was arrested by Department of Homeland Security agents on Saturday night is currently being held
‘We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.
‘Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again.
‘If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here.’
In a direct warning to universities and colleges across the nation, Trump said they are expected to ‘comply’ with this decision.
Khalil, who graduated in December, is in custody at an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, according to federal records.
Activists who are lobbying for Khalil’s release say he was confronted at 8:30pm in his apartment building by two plain clothes DHS agents, both of whom refused to identify themselves at first.
His wife, who is eight months pregnant and a US citizen, was allegedly there as well. The activists said she was threatened with arrest if she ‘remained by his side.’
In the United States, immigration judges are the only people with the authority to revoke permanent residency.
Homan, who has led Trump’s agenda on the border at full force, said that ‘absolutely we can’ deport green card holders such as Khalil
A handout picture released by Guatemalan Migration Institute shows Guatemalan migrants descending from an US military plane after being deported from America
Grounds for revocation include lying on your green card application or committing certain types of felonies.
According to a legal filing, ‘ICE began efforts to transfer Mr. Khalil out of [New York] and to a Louisiana detention facility a thousand miles away, without providing him any access to his counsel.’
‘This seemingly retaliatory action is particularly troubling,’ the filing states.
Khalil’s arrest comes as Trump announced he would be cutting $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia for its failure to contain the pro-Palestinian protests.
