Columbia students at graduation event chant 'Free Mahmoud' for ICE detained classmate

Columbia University students chanted "Free Mahmoud" at a graduation ceremony Tuesday in support of classmate Mahmoud Khalil, now in a federal detention facility and awaiting possible deportation for pro-Palestinian activism that the Trump administration calls a threat to American foreign policy.

The students, who were from Columbia College, the university's undergraduate liberal arts school, chanted in support of Khalil, who completed his master's degree at the university in December but missed Tuesday's commencement ceremony due to his detention, NorthJersey.com reported.

Their students' chants interrupted President Claire Shipman's speech.

The chants also included demands that Khalil and chants of “You arrested us,” alluding to the university calling New Your City police to campus last spring to break up the pro-Palestinian student protests.

Khalil, a legal permanent resident who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested by federal immigration agents at his Manhattan apartment building in March because of his "beliefs, statements or associations undermine U.S. policy to combat antisemitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States," according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Last month, an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled that Khalil could be deported, saying she does not have the authority to question Rubio's determination.

Khalil’s attorneys are requesting the judge drop the case, arguing that the arrest was illegal because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initially said they had a warrant in their arrest report. However, government lawyers later acknowledged in a court filing that they did not have a warrant, which they said would have been unnecessary because of "exigent circumstances."

Khalil is in a Louisiana detention facility and scheduled to appear in immigration court on May 22.