‘There was flight risk’: US says warrantless arrest of Columbia student activist Mahmoud Khalil was necessary

The United States' federal government reportedly defended its arrest of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil without a warrant. The government said agents feared that Khalil would flee because he said he would leave the scene.

Khalil has been held in a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, for six weeks. He is a legal permanent US resident and graduate student who served as spokesperson for campus activists last year during large demonstrations at Columbia against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and the war in Gaza, the Associated Press reported.

He was detained by federal agents in the lobby of his Manhattan apartment on March 8, the first arrest in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

The Trump administration has not accused Khalil of criminal conduct, but has argued he should be expelled from the country for his beliefs.

'Arrest was necessary'

A lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security had filed a document in Newark federal court on Monday. The department informed that agents conducting surveillance of Khalil on March 8 were notified that he could be removed from the country because his presence or activities would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States, the Associated Press reported.

As Khalil walked on a sidewalk with his wife, a Homeland Security Investigations agent approached and identified himself, according to the court filing.

After his wife went to retrieve documents showing Khalil had lawful residence status, the agent asked him to cooperate while they tried to verify his identity.

However, Khalil “stated that he would not cooperate and that he was going to leave the scene,” the lawyer reportedly wrote.

The Homeland Security supervisory agent at that point “believed there was a flight risk and arrest was necessary,” he said.

'They never showed warrant'

In a release on Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union contested the US department's account, saying the Department'slaim he was about to flee was false and belied by video taken of the arrest by Khalil’s wife, along with previous accounts of the arrest.

Marc Van Der Hout, a lawyer for Khalil, said in the release that agents told Khalil when he was taken into custody that they had an arrest warrant, and his lawyers only learned this week with the new government filing that there was none, the AP reported.

Meanwhile, Amy Greer, a lawyer who was on the phone with Khalil and the arresting agent on the night of the arrest, said Khalil remained calm that evening and complied with orders even as agents failed to show an arrest warrant.

“Today, we now know why they never showed Mahmoud that warrant — they didn’t have one. This is clearly yet another desperate attempt by the Trump administration to justify its unlawful arrest and detention of human rights defender Mahmoud Khalil, who is now, by the government’s own tacit admission, a political prisoner of the United States," Greer said.