Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil arrested without warrant, Court documents reveal

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Six weeks into the detention of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, new court filings on Apr 24 revealed that federal agents arrested him without a warrant.

Documents filed in a New Jersey federal court show that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is defending its March 8 arrest of Khalil — a legal US resident — by citing concerns that he posed a flight risk after allegedly refusing to cooperate with agents during a sidewalk encounter in Manhattan.

“He stated that he would not cooperate and that he was going to leave the scene,” DHS lawyers claimed in a Monday filing. That moment, they argue, justified the immediate warrantless arrest by Homeland Security Investigations agents, who had been surveilling Khalil.