Over boos, Columbia University president notes Mahmoud Khalil's absence at graduation

NEW YORK — The head of Columbia University gave a commencement speech Wednesday acknowledging the absence of student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was due to receive his diploma this week but is instead in a Louisiana jail facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests.

The brief address drew loud boos and chants of “free Palestine” from some graduating students. Acting president Claire Shipman also alluded to the crackdown on foreign students by the Trump administration that has roiled the Ivy League school in recent months.

“We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising this right,” Shipman said, adding: “I know many in our community are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil.”

Khalil, a graduate student in Columbia’s international affairs program, has remained detained since March 8 when immigration agents took him into custody at his off-campus apartment in Manhattan. While in custody, he missed the birth of his first child. His repeated requests to hold the newborn have been rejected by the jail, his attorneys said Wednesday.

As Shipman spoke under rainy skies, some students walked out while others booed and jeered. The acting president, who took over in late March, received a similarly icy reception during a smaller graduation ceremony Tuesday.

Dozens of people protested across the street from the university's main gates on Wednesday, and at least one person in a blue Columbia graduation robe was detained by New York City police. The NYPD did not immediately have any additional information on arrests.

Some students and faculty have accused Columbia’s leadership of capitulating to the Trump administration’s demands at the expense of protecting foreign students.

Federal authorities have not accused Khalil of a crime, but have sought to deport him on the basis that his prominent role in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza may have undermined U.S. foreign policy interests.

He is scheduled to appear Thursday before a Louisiana immigration judge, who previously ruled that he could be legally deported.

A federal judge ordered Wednesday that Khalil's wife be allowed to accompany his lawyers to a meeting at the detention center, over objections from the government, which argued that allowing her or the newborn to attend “would turn a legal visitation into a family one.”

Khalil's attorneys had written that the jail's refusal to let him meet, and touch, his wife and child “is further evidence of the retaliatory motive behind Mr. Khalil’s arrest and faraway detention.”

Inquiries to the jail were not returned.