New York, New York - Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly personally signed off on the arrest of pro-Palestinian Columbia University activist and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil.

Immigration officials detained Khalil – a permanent US resident – at his New York City apartment on Saturday and transferred him to the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana.

During the raid, ICE officers initially said Khalil's student visa was being revoked. They refused to release Khalil – whose US citizen wife is eight months pregnant – even after it became clear he had a green card.

Sources within the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department told Zeteo that Rubio had taken advantage of a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) which reads: "An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable."

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Typically, freedom of political belief is protected under the INA, except in rare cases when the secretary of state "personally determines that the alien's admission would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest."

Khalil is a graduate of Columbia, where he played a crucial role in mediation between school administrators and student protesters opposed to the university's failure to divest from Israel amid the ongoing atrocities in Palestine.

"We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported," Rubio posted on X on Sunday along with a story about Khalil's arrest.

The Trump administration has slammed Columbia for allegedly failing to help locate individuals who have engaged in Palestine liberation activities, which the White House has labeled antisemitic.

"Columbia University has been given the names of other individuals who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity, and they are refusing to help DHS identify those individuals on campus," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Tuesday briefing. "And as the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday, he is not going to tolerate that."

Trump on Monday described Khalil's detention as "the first arrest of many to come," adding, "We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again."

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A federal judge ruled Monday that Khalil could not be deported "unless and until the Court orders otherwise."

Attorneys have filed an emergency petition to see Khalil transferred back to the New York City area amid an ongoing case challenging the legality of his detention.

A hearing in Khalil's case is scheduled to take place Wednesday before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.