NEW YORK: The US government has alleged that Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil withheld that he worked for a UN Palestinian relief agency in his visa application, saying that should be grounds for deportation.
The UN agency known as UNRWA provides food and healthcare to Palestinian refugees and has become a flashpoint in the Israeli war in Gaza. Israel contends that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, leading the US to halt funding of the group.
The administration of US President Donald Trump on March 8 detained Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian campus protests that rocked the New York City campus last year, and sent him to Louisiana in an attempt to remove him from the country.