Jewish group fills Trump Tower’s lobby to protest effort to deport pro-Palestinian Columbia activist

NEW YORK (AP) - Demonstrators from a Jewish group filled the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday to denounce the immigration arrest of a Columbia University activist who helped lead student protests on the Manhattan campus against Israel’s war in Gaza.

The Jewish Voice for Peace protesters, who wore red shirts reading "Jews say stop arming Israel" and carried banners reading "Opposing fascism is a Jewish tradition" and "Fight Nazis not students," chanted "Bring Mahmoud home now!”

Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident who is married to an American citizen and who hasn’t been charged with breaking any laws, was arrested outside his New York City apartment on Saturday and faces deportation. President Donald Trump has said Khalil's arrest was the first "of many to come" and vowed on social media to deport students who he said engage in "pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity."

Police were staged inside and outside the Fifth Avenue building ahead of the protest.

Khalil's supporters say his arrest is an attack on free speech and have staged protests elsewhere in the city and around the country. Hundreds demonstrated Wednesday outside a Manhattan courthouse during a brief hearing on his case.

Khalil, 30, was being detained at an immigration detention center in Louisiana, where he has remained after a brief stop at a New Jersey lockup.

Columbia was a focal point of the pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across U.S. college campuses last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.

Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master's degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.