Demonstrators have filled the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City after the ICE arrest of a Columbia University activist. 

Members of the Jewish Voice for Peace donned red shirts declaring ‘Jews say stop arming Israel’ and held banners with the message ‘Opposing fascism is a Jewish tradition’.

Others said ‘fight Nazis not students’ while also chanting out ‘bring Mahmoud home now’. 

Police, strategically positioned both inside and outside the Fifth Avenue building before the protest, started making arrests once the demonstrators were warned to disperse.

Trump Tower serves as headquarters for the Trump Organization and is where the president stays when he is in New York. 

A line of protestors could be seen being led into awaiting NYPD police trucks following the sit in.  

Khalil, 29, a Palestinian who was born and raised in Syria, helped to lead protests against Israel at Columbia University last year. 

Demonstrators from the group, Jewish Voice for Peace, protest inside Trump Tower

New York Police officers arrest a demonstrator from the group Jewish Voice for Peace following the protest

New York Police officers arrest a demonstrator from the group on Thursday

Demonstrators are detained during a rally against the ICE detention of Mahmoud Khalil

He also acted as a negotiator between students and university officials.

The protests lasted for a period of two weeks, during which there were reports of violent attacks and Jewish students feeling unsafe to attend their classes.

He was taken into custody at his university-owned apartment on Saturday night by ICE agents. 

The Department of Homeland Security, confirming Khalil’s arrest on Sunday, claimed he had ‘led activities aligned to Hamas’ and that the DHS action was taken ‘in coordination with the Department of State.’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on Sunday that his department would be ‘revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.’

Khalil’s supporters say his arrest is an attack on free speech, and have been staging protests in the city and across the country. 

Outside of a Manhattan courthouse on Wednesday hundreds gathered during a brief hearing on the case. 

Khalil was being detained at an immigration detention center in Louisiana, where he has remained after a brief stop at a New Jersey lockup. 

Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, in New York City, U.S., June 1, 2024

He has not been charged with a crime. He is also married to a U.S. citizen. His wife is also eight months pregnant. 

His arrest has ignited a fierce debate over whether the Trump administration violated his First Amendment rights by detaining him and trying to deport him. 

A brief hearing on Wednesday largely focused on jurisdiction, but one of Khalil’s lawyers told the judge that they have not been able to have a single attorney-client protected phone call with him. 

Rubio fired back at critics of Khalil’s arrest, saying that it is ‘not about free speech.’ 

‘When you come to the United States as a visitor, which is what a visa is, which is how this individual entered this country, on a visitor’s visa, you are here as a visitor. We can deny you that visa,’ the U.S. top diplomat argued.

If someone said they intended to come to the U.S. as a student ‘and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, anti-Semitic activities’ and shut down universities, they would be denied the visa, Rubio said.

He added: ‘If you actually end up doing that once you’re in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it.’

Rubio also said if they end up on a green card with such activities, the U.S. will kick someone out.

‘This is not about free speech. This is about people who don’t have the right to be in the United States to begin with,’ the secretary of state said.

‘No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card,’ Rubio added.

He said the U.S. can deny one for ‘virtually any reason.’

That included ‘being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down, and being complicit in what are clearly crimes of vandalization, complicit in shutting down learning institutions.’