(NEW YORK) — At least 98 people were arrested Thursday at a protest in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan that called for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil — the pro-Palestinian activist and green card holder arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week.
Protesters are facing charges of trespass and resisting arrest, according to the New York Police Department.
Hundreds of Jewish protesters wearing “Not in Our Name” t-shirts staged a sit-in in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan. Protesters entered the lobby in two groups, including many who entered the public lobby area in civilian clothes hiding their protest gear underneath, according to police.
The NYPD said it is familiar with this protest group and its tactics. As in other Trump Tower incidents, police were only called to the public lobby area once Trump’s security deemed it necessary
The protesters carried banners in support of Khalil, who was a leader of protests against the war in Gaza at Columbia University, that said “Jews say Free Mahmoud & Free Palestine” and “Fight Nazis Not Students.”
“As Jews of conscience, we know our history and we know where this leads. This is what fascists do as they cement control. This moment requires all people of conscience to take bold action to resist state violence and repression. Free Mahmoud now,” Jane Hirschmann, a Jewish New Yorker whose grandfather and uncle were abducted by the Nazis during Hitler’s rise to power, said in a statement.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also announced it is filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of Khalil and other students against Columbia University and the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce over the committee’s request to disclose thousands of student records.
Khalil, who has not been charged with a crime, is currently being held in Louisiana after being detained in New York earlier this week.
His wife, who is 8 months pregnant, said the couple have been preparing for the arrival of their baby.
“Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all. I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration,” she said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration has alleged that Khalil — who was a leader of the pro-Palestinian encampment protests on Columbia’s campus — was a supporter of Hamas. Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s lawyers, called his client’s alleged alignment with Hamas “false and preposterous.”
“Setting aside the false and preposterous premise that advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights and to plead with public officials to stop an ongoing genocide constitutes alignment with Hamas, his speech is absolutely protected by the Constitution, and it should be chilling to everyone that the United States government could punish or try to deport someone because they disapprove of the speech they’re engaged in,” Azmy told ABC News on Monday.
The administration has not provided any evidence showing Khalil’s alleged support for the militant group.
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