From WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Wednesday, March 12th.

We'll talk in detail now about the detention for deportation of recent Columbia grad school graduate

Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the

campus protests there since October 7, 2023, calling for the school to divest from Israel, and he was a

lead negotiator with a school when the encampments were taking place last school year.

As I mentioned in our previous segment, he is a green card

holder, legal permanent residence. He was entering his building where he lives with his eight-month

pregnant U.S. citizen wife near Columbia when ICE agents detained him and put him in an immigrant

detention facility first in New Jersey and then in Louisiana to the shock of his wife who was going to visit him in an immigrant detention facility first in New Jersey and then in Louisiana,

to the shock of his wife, who was going to visit him in Jersey, will focus on the legal aspects

of the attempt to deport him, as well as what anyone thinks is right or wrong. The case is in

court today. My guest on the legal angle is Peter Markowitz, law professor at the Cardoza Law School

and co-director of the Catherine Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic there. Professor Markowitz,

thanks for coming on for this. Welcome to WNYC. Thank you for having me, Brian, and thank you for

shining a light on this important issue. Is Mahmood Khalil accused of committing a crime?

I'm glad you started there because the answer is no.

We have to be a little careful because there's limited information in the public record so

far, and so I'm sure we'll learn more in the days to come and maybe even in the hearing

that's going on right now.

But from everything we know so far, it is very clear that the charges against him are civil

immigration charges. That is, he's not been accused of any acts of violence, not been accused of

any criminality, no incitement to violence. It appears based on some

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