Pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil was arrested Saturday by immigration authorities, his lawyer confirmed to Axios.

The big picture: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents told Khalil that his student visa had been revoked before his arrest.

• However, Khalil is a legal permanent resident and not in the U.S. on a student visa, attorney Amy Greer said in a statement.

• Greer told the AP that an agent informed her in a phone call that they were executing an order from the State Department to revoke Khalil's student visa. Upon being informed he was a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were pulling his green card too.
• Greer said in a statement to Axios that Khalil's legal team was informed Sunday morning he had been transferred to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But when his pregnant wife, a U.S. citizen who was also threatened with arrest by ICE, went to visit him, she was told he was not there.

What they're saying: Columbia University said in a Sunday statement about reports of ICE on campus that law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter university buildings.

• ICE arrested Khalil at his university-owned apartment, Greer told the AP.
• A State Department spokesperson told Axios that the department has broad authority to revoke visas but said they could not comment on individual cases.
• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) referred Axios to the White House when asked for comment. The White House did not respond to Axios' request.

A petition calling for Khalil's immediate release said he has been the target of "various zionist harassment campaigns" that serve to "instill fear in pro-Palestine activists as well as a warning to others."

• Khalil told the AP before his arrest that the university accused him of misconduct weeks before his December 2024 graduation, adding that most of the allegations concerned social media posts he had "nothing to do with."
• Khalil became one of the most well-known student activists during the Columbia encampment and protest last spring, giving interviews and engaging in negotiations with the university about the protesters' demands.

Friction point: Khalil's detainment comes as the Trump administration has called for revoking student visas for foreign nationals it deems to be "Hamas sympathizers" — a process Axios reported would involve AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders' social media accounts.

• Columbia also remains in the crosshairs of the White House, which announced Friday it would yank some $400 million in federal grants and contracts from the university. The school became the epicenter of nationwide protests last spring over Israel's handling of the war in Gaza.
• The Trump Education Department cited alleged inaction in the face of "persistent harassment of Jewish students" in announcing it would slash funding, saying additional cancelations are expected to follow.
• Days before, President Trump threatened to halt federal funding for schools and universities that allow "illegal protests."

What we're watching: "We will vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud's rights in court, and will continue our efforts to right this terrible and inexcusable – and calculated – wrong committed against him," Greer said.

• His arrest follows what she described as the government's "open repression of student activism and political speech," targeting Columbia students protesting the Israel-Hamas war, in particular.
• "The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech," she said.

Go deeper: ICE fears prompt foreign workers and students to keep visas close

• When my son was 1, we moved from San Francisco to Thailand.
• People in Thailand welcomed us with open arms and helped me when needed.
• We moved back to the US when he was 5 and experienced culture shock.

When my son was 1, I moved from the tumultuous San Francisco Bay Area to the rolling hills of Northeastern Thailand. When I stepped off the plane, I could tell my parenting experience would be different.

Once on the ground, we hopped into a courtesy van that would take us on another hourslong journey to Loei Province, our final destination in rural Northeastern Thailand. As we stopped to fuel up at one of the many 7-Elevens dotting the highway, I ducked into the store to buy some essentials.

Unfortunately, my screaming baby had other plans. He kicked and arched his back as I tried to pay the cashier, only to be suddenly whisked away and soothed by a middle-age Thai woman (and perfect stranger) while I fished through my pockets for the unfamiliar Thai currency.

I'd soon learn this was the norm in Thailand: I never got dirty looks when my son was tearful or noisy, only an endless stream of adoring aunties ready to help the moment they were needed — even before they were asked.

I was a helicopter mom in the US

As a former helicopter mom, this was new for me. Parenting in the San Francisco Bay area had been a notably solo venture, especially as a young mom whose friends weren't very interested in kids, let alone starting families.

When we settled into our new home in Loei with a small community of expats, I learned the extent of the Thai people's friendliness and camaraderie. I enlisted the help of a nanny named Ot, who insisted we call her Auntie with the familiar Pa before her name.

Pa Ot became a true auntie to my son and, frankly, like a second mother to me. With several kids of her own and much more experience than I had, she showed me how to soothe my baby's mosquito bites and remove the relentless cradle cap that cropped up repeatedly in the sweltering humidity.

People took care of us

She showed my son how to eat in the traditional Thai fashion, grabbing and molding sticky rice into a tiny bowl with his fingers to scoop up a morsel of meat or vegetables. She also taught us both how to speak Thai, though my son was always ahead of me.

On weekends, she'd invite us to the local river to swim, another opportunity to meet the Thai villagers and learn about their way of life. She even showed me the wall where she'd printed his photo after months of helping to care for my son and hung it as if he were a part of the family.

Then, there was Jung Niem, the groundskeeper who tended the gardens in our little expat community. He'd invite my truck-obsessed son to sit in the front seat of his work truck with him and paw at the steering wheel, never too busy or distracted to take the time. The office manager, Pi Pat, would routinely grab my kiddo and plop him on her lap, laughing as he banged on the keyboard and terrorized the tiny office.

When we moved to Bangkok, the welcome continued. Our high-rise apartment complex was like a little village, with two restaurants, a dry cleaner, a 7-Eleven, and two massage shops on the ground floor. Mothers and kids were always outside, ready to play, and we didn't need to perfect the language to make friends.

When we moved back to the US I experienced culture shock

The true culture shock set in when we moved back to the US when my son was five. I had forgotten how insular people could be, even parents with kids who ostensibly needed me as much as I needed them. Between competing schedules and priorities, pinning down a playdate was akin to coordinating a rocket launch.

In Thailand, I finally learned how to relax and accept the help I needed as a young, inexperienced mother. The Thai people welcomed me and my son with open arms, no questions asked: community was a given, not a luxury. On returning to my country of origin, it struck me what poverty of community we often face in our individualist culture, especially in a frenetic metropolis like the Bay Area.

Thailand taught me what a powerful gift it is to receive community support as a parent, giving new meaning to the oft-used but seldom-lived adage, "It takes a village."

• NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams held a press conference last week.
• Wilmore said politics hasn't influenced the timeline for when he and Williams will return to Earth.
• Elon Musk said the astronauts were left at the International Space Station for "political reasons."

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore said politics aren't the reason he and pilot Suni Williams are still in space nearly nine months after they were expected back on Earth.

The two launched on Boeing's Starliner ship on June 5, 2024, planning to stay on the International Space Station for a week or so. It's been over 275 days since then.

Ahead of their anticipated return in late March, Wilmore and Williams hosted a press conference from the International Space Station last week, answering questions about their mission, return, and how politics plays a role.

Although Wilmore and Williams are about 250 miles from Earth, comments made by President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk have thrust them into the political spotlight.

In January, Trump said Wilmore and Williams were "virtually abandoned by the Biden Administration" in a post on Truth Social.

Musk, the face of DOGE, said the two astronauts were left in space for "political reasons" during a joint interview with Trump on Fox News in February.

The billionaire reiterated this claim during a spat on X with European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, saying he offered to bring Williams and Wilmore home on a SpaceX ship, but the Biden administration declined.

During the press conference, a reporter asked if Wilmore and Williams felt politics had influenced their timeline to return to Earth.

"From my standpoint, politics is not playing into this at all," Wilmore said during last week's press conference, adding, "We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short. That's what we do in human space flight. That's what your nation's human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that."

When asked how it felt to be at the center of a political story following Trump and Musk's comments, Wilmore said politics are "part of life" and that he and his fellow crewmates aboard the ISS — Williams and Nick Hague — support the US and its leaders.

The astronauts have been in space since June 2024

In June, the two astronauts traveled to space aboard Boeing's Starliner ship to conduct its first crewed flight, which was meant to prove Boeing could be used for routine human space travel.

However, five of Starliner's reaction control system thrusters malfunctioned as it flew to the ISS. The spacecraft's helium system was also leaking.

NASA and Boeing, unsure of how the thrusters would perform on the flight back to Earth, conducted weeks of tests and reviews. Ultimately, NASA did not feel confident in Boeing's spacecraft and tapped Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring Wilmore and Williams home.

Although the pair were expected back on Earth in February, a delay with SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship means they aren't expected to return until late March.

NASA plans to launch a new crew, dubbed Crew 10, into space on March 12. If all goes according to plan, after Crew 10 arrives at the ISS, Crew-9 — including Wilmore and Williams — will hand over operations to the new crew.

"Following the handover, NASA and SpaceX will prepare to return to Earth NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard Crew-9 pending weather conditions at the splashdown sites off the coast of Florida," NASA said on its website.

Representatives for NASA, SpaceX, Musk, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment made outside regular business hours. A representative for Boeing referred BI to NASA.