UNC Charlotte students protest for release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil
Nearly 20 UNC Charlotte students and faculty gathered for a protest on campus Tuesday afternoon to demand the release of Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
Khalil, who was arrested Saturday in New York by federal immigration agents, was threatened with deportation by the Trump administration, which alleged Mahmoud “led activities aligned” with Hamas.
The United States designated Hamas a foreign terrorist group in 1997, according to the U.S. Department of State.
Hamas and Israel have been at war in Gaza since Hamas launched a terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 Israeli civilians. Israel responded with attacks in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the crossfire, according Gaza’s health ministry.
Israel’s actions in Gaza led to protests at college campuses nationally, including at UNC Charlotte. It also led to an increase in antisemitic events, according to the Associated Press.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that he said would combat antisemitism. He promised the federal government would deport Hamas “sympathizers” and revoke student visas.
“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” a fact sheet on the executive order said. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
On social media, Trump said Khalil’s arrest was the first of “many to come.”
At Tuesday’s protest in Charlotte by the group Students for Justice in Palestine, student participants said they didn’t think the Trump administration was trying to combat antisemitism, but rather trying to suppress freedom of speech, Palestinian support, and student protests.
“It’s an illegal power grab by the Trump administration,” said Sammie Randall, a student protester who led others in chants. The Charlotte protest was meant to show solidarity with other student organizers, she said, and push for free speech and due process.
In 2024, students gathered for pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the country, including UNC Charlotte, where a student encampment was shut down by the university. It was part of what led the UNC System Board of Governors to create new campus policies around student protests at UNC campuses.
While a student at Columbia, Khalil helped lead protests and led negotiations between student protesters and the university administration last spring, Time reported.
A federal judge in New York halted the removal of Khalil, who is being held at a detention center in Louisiana, until a judge can review the legality of the deportation.
Three UNC Charlotte faculty members, including Caitlin Schroering and Tina Shull, protested with the students and spoke to them.
Shull, a history professor who said her husband was detained and deported while she was a graduate student at New York University, told students that many other faculty members supported their protests, but were too afraid of retaliation to speak out.
Austin Butler, a graduate student at UNC Charlotte, sat on a bench with Marek Casenhiser, a sophomore, to support the protesters.
While they didn’t initially come to actively protest, the two would eventually join in carrying signs and chanting “Release Mahmoud Khalil now,” after another student urged them to stand up.
Butler said he thought the university had a reputation of intimidating students into not protesting, and hoped that he and the other students might combat that.
“I’m hoping that by just being here, I can help alleviate some of that concern,” Butler said. “Dispel this cultural fear that the university sort of harnessed around speaking up.”
Casenhiser said he hesitated joining the protests at first, but said he supported people protesting Israel’s military force against the Palestinian people.
“I do think that what Israel is doing is too much,” he said. “Furthermore, I think what America is doing, especially with Mahmoud Khalil, is against freedom of speech fundamentally.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
