Mamoud Khalil is still in Louisiana but a hearing is being held in New York City today to determine whether or not he should be returned to New York. Left-wing activists are calling everyone to show up for the hearing.

🚨 @DPearlProject Red Alert to media, the public, law enforcement, intel:
🚨 In minutes, as Mahmoud Khalil appears in a court hearing, videos will go viral from an 11 AM protest for Mahmoud Khalil. This is not a “grassroots” protest.
🚨 Organizers are part of a multimillion… pic.twitter.com/rEkuZGDQWn

— Asra Nomani (@AsraNomani) March 12, 2025

There was a long line of people hoping to get into the courtroom for the hearing.

People already lined up for Mahmoud Khalil’s hearing, more than an hour before it starts pic.twitter.com/hn8i1uppC4

— Rozina Ali (@rozina_ali) March 12, 2025

Actress Susan Sarandon appears to be at the front of the line.

Omg. Susan Sarandon showed up this morning to Mahmoud Khalil’s court hearing. She really loves terrorism.
pic.twitter.com/VgCkTzvaZh

— Angela Van Der Pluym (@anjewla90) March 12, 2025

Meanwhile, protesters gathered outside.

A large group of protesters have gathered outside of the Mahmoud Khalil court hearing. pic.twitter.com/kp5rhbRSRV

— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) March 12, 2025

There was at least one counter-protester there with a Trump flag. You'd think that people ostensibly protesting to defend the First Amendment rights of Mamoud Khalil would be eager to respect the First Amendment rights of others but no. They stole his flag and told him to get out. Masked people were ready to defend the thief until the police got involved.

NOW: "Send them back!"

Trump supporter has his flag stolen at a protest outside a court hearing to determine the legality of Mahmoud Khalil's deportation. pic.twitter.com/1O7RurVPmF

— Peter Hambrecht (@peterhvideo) March 12, 2025

The NY Post reports one person was arrested this morning after pulling off the hat of the guy with the Trump flag.

Today's hearing is not about whether he will be deported but about whether or not he will remain in Louisiana and in ICE custody.

Judge Furman has the power to order Mr. Khalil’s release, but it is unclear whether he might do so as early as the conference, on Wednesday morning at 11:30. The conference, however, could provide more information about the circumstances that led to the arrest and the government’s justification for Mr. Khalil’s continuing detention.

The future of Mr. Khalil’s immigration status will be decided in a separate process. That matter will be presided over by an immigration judge, who could determine whether to revoke Mr. Khalil’s green card.

Khalil's lawyers claimed they haven't been able to talk to him.

"We have literally not been able to confer with our client once since he was taken off the street of New York and taken 1,000 miles away to Louisiana,“ Khalil's lawyer, Ramzi Kassem, told Judge Jesse Furman.

Judge Furman arranged for attorneys to speak to Khalil once today and once tomorrow before they file an updated lawsuit.

Meanwhile, there is still a lot happening at Columbia. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that a faculty civil war was taking place between the sciences and the humanities.

In February, well before Trump made Columbia exhibit A in his effort to reshape elite colleges, seven Jewish faculty from the engineering, medical, and business schools, along with prominent deans and a representative for Jewish alumni, met with Columbia interim President Katrina Armstrong. They asked her to get ahead of Trump’s moves by implementing a series of restrictions on protesters, including banning masks on campus, according to people in attendance.

 Faculty who attended the meeting said Armstrong’s response was to kick the can down the road.

Now that the Trump administration has canceled $400 million in grants and contracts, it's the doctors and engineers who are seeing their funding disappear and they are frustrated.

“People are very angry, people are in tears. They are so frustrated,” said Brent Stockwell, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. “It feels like you’re on a bus that’s going over the cliff and you’re just asking for someone to take charge and drive.”

But very belatedly, the university is taking action. Yesterday a member of the school's University Judicial Board announced that hearings for students involved in campus protests a year ago have finally been completed.

The University Judicial Board completed hearings for students who allegedly participated in the April 17 and April 18, 2024 “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” and the April 30 occupation of Hamilton Hall, Rules Administrator Gregory Wawro, a professor of political science, announced in a Tuesday email to the Columbia community...

A University spokesperson told Spectator in May 2024 that protesters who occupied Hamilton would face expulsion. Columbia University Apartheid Divest wrote in an Instagram post on March 3 that one Barnard student had been expelled for their alleged participation in the occupation of Hamilton Hall, and that another had been suspended. There have not been publicized expulsions at Columbia related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall.

Because the outcomes of these proceedings are not publicized, we still don't know if Columbia has expelled anyone for the building takeover last year. We'll have to wait and see if CUAD complains about any more suspensions or expulsions.

The big picture is that Trump's defunding has finally got the school's administrators focused on dealing with the activists who, up to now, have been running roughshod over the school without any lasting consequences. So long as they don't back down, other schools will get the message. 

Of course, protest is fair game and students have a right to that like everyone else. Taking over campus buildings and vandalizing communal property are not legal and should be dealt with swiftly.