Jewish protesters flood Trump Tower lobby to demand the Columbia University activist's release

Demonstrators from the group, Jewish Voice for Peace, protest inside Trump Tower in support of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, Thursday, March 13, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

NEW YORK — Demonstrators from a Jewish group filled the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday to denounce the immigration arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist who helped lead protests against Israel at Columbia University.

The Jewish Voice for Peace protesters, who carried banners and wore red shirts reading “Jews say stop arming Israel,” chanted “Bring Mahmoud home now!”

After warning the protesters to leave the Fifth Avenue building, officers arrested 98 of them on various charges including trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest, a police official said at a news briefing.

Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent U.S. resident who is married to an American citizen and who hasn’t been charged with breaking any laws, was arrested outside his New York City apartment on Saturday and faces deportation. He’s being held at an immigration detention center in Louisiana.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said Khalil’s arrest was the first “of many to come” and vowed on social media to deport students who he said engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.” The White House didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the Trump Tower demonstration.

Among those who took part in Thursday’s protest was actor Debra Winger, who has discussed her Jewish faith and upbringing over the years.

Winger accused the Trump administration of having “no interest in Jewish safety” and “co-opting antisemitism.”

“I’m just standing up for my rights, and I’m standing up for Mahmoud Khalil, who has been abducted illegally and taken to an undisclosed location,” she told The Associated Press. “Does that sound like America to you?”

Protester Sophie Edelhart, who studies Yiddish at a school in Canada, said she took part in the demonstration because she didn’t want to “cede ground” to Trump and “fascism.” She said the building, with its golden escalator that Trump rode before announcing his 2016 presidential run, was a symbolic target.

Trump Tower serves as headquarters for the Trump Organization and is where the president stays when he is in New York. The skyscraper often attracts demonstrations, both against and in support of its namesake, though protests inside are less common. The building’s main entrance opens to a multi-story atrium that is open to the public and connects visitors to stores and eateries such as the Trump Grill.

Kaz Daughtry, the deputy mayor for public safety and a former longtime New York Police Department official, said no one was injured in Thursday’s protest. But he said the city would assess the situation and review its procedures “so this cannot happen again.”

Khalil’s supporters say Khalil’s arrest is an attack on free speech and have staged protests elsewhere in the city and around the country. Hundreds demonstrated Wednesday outside a Manhattan courthouse during a brief hearing on his case.

Columbia was a focal point of the pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across U.S. college campuses last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.

On Thursday, Khalil and seven students identified by pseudonyms filed a lawsuit seeking to block a Congressional committee from obtaining Columbia and Barnard College disciplinary records for students involved in campus protests.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan against the schools, the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce and its chairman, Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., seeks a permanent injunction barring Congress from forcing the schools to provide the records and the universities from complying with it.

The committee sent a letter last month demanding that Columbia and Barnard provide the records or risk billions of dollars in federal funding. The plaintiffs contend that the committee is abusing its power in an attempt “to chill and suppress speech and association based on the viewpoint expressed” and that its investigation “threatens to significantly infringe on First Amendment rights.”

Message seeking comment were left for spokespeople for Walberg, the committee and Barnard College. Columbia declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.

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Cedar Attanasio, The Associated Press

Associated Press reporters Michael Hill in Albany, New York, Michelle L. Price and Joseph B. Frederick and contributed.