Approximately 100 Jewish protesters were arrested after they held a protest inside the famous Trump Tower calling for the release of a pro-Palestine activist who holds a green card and is to be deported by President Donald Trump.
New York Police Chief John Chell said 98 people were arrested on Thursday for not leaving the area voluntarily, with a number of hundreds leaving voluntarily.
The demonstration was led by Jewish Voice for Peace, a coalition of Jewish activists against Israel's policies and promoting coexistence with Palestinians.
Protesters, openly identifying with their religion, had T-shirts reading "Not in Our Name" and "Jews Say Stop Arming Israel," while banners stating "Free Mahmoud, Free Palestine" were also on display.
Arrested protester Mahmoud Khalil is at the center of the storm.
Amid mounting pressure from the Trump administration to curb pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas demonstrations that had previously disrupted Columbia University, the institution announced the expulsion of some students involved in last year's protests, which were led by Khalil.
The Trump administration also halted $400 million in federal funding to the university, citing its failure to combat anti-Semitism.
The Trump Tower protest was the sixth straight day of demonstrations over Khalil's arrest. He led the protests last year at Columbia University and also took part in a comparable protest at Barnard College last week.
Khalil has a green card but cannot be deported at once. Instead, his permanent residency would have to be canceled first.
Earlier a grad student at the Ivy League institution, officials at first stated his student visa had been revoked. However, subsequently it was revealed that he possesses a green card and is wed to an American citizen.
Khalil is being held in a Louisiana center.
A federal lawsuit to contest his arrest and deportation was filed on his behalf. Although a judge temporarily stayed his deportation on Wednesday, the decision permitted authorities to detain him.
The Department of Homeland Security has charged Khalil with heading "activities affiliated with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization" and said his arrest is consistent with President Trump's executive orders intended to stem anti-Semitism.
His lawyers and human rights groups claim that the government is punishing him for exercising his constitutional right to free speech.
Khalil has not been officially charged with offering direct assistance to Hamas, the Palestinian militant organization behind the October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 individuals and took about 250 hostages.
Protests at Columbia and other American universities have demanded Israel's cease-fire on its military attack in Gaza, which reportedly resulted in approximately 45,000 fatalities.
Some of the protests have turned into anti-Semitic activities, targeting Jewish students and faculty members with harassment as well as subjecting them to inflammatory language.
Responding to charges of Khalil being targeted for his activism, Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected allegations that his case was about free speech.
This has nothing to do with free speech. This is about individuals that don't have a right to be in the United States, period," Rubio declared.
"No one has a right to a green card," he continued.
Trump, who keeps a weekend home at Trump Tower, still has an apartment in the 58-story tower. It is one of the only buildings in New York to bear his name, as many of the others in the overwhelmingly Democratic city have had his signage taken down in protest of his policies.
The demonstrators were able to enter the highly guarded building by surreptitiously covering up their slogan-printed T-shirts and entering small groups through public spaces on the lower floors, which contain retail outlets.
The U.S. Jewish community is politically heterogeneous, and many of them are supporting Palestinian rights as well as demanding a two-state solution.
Certain ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups, commonly labeled "fundamentalists" in American media, are opposed to Israel on religious grounds. These sects actively take part in anti-Israel protests, identifiable by their black coats and hats.
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