WATCH: Pro-Palestinian Protesters Occupy Trump Tower In New York City
Dozens of protesters entered the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday, chanting for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia grad student detained by federal authorities over the weekend.
The Jewish Voice for Peace protesters, all in red shirts, were heard chanting, “Free Mahmoud, free them all.”
Some carried signs that read, “Fight Nazis not students” and “Opposing fascism is a Jewish tradition.”
NYPD officers entered the Fifth Avenue building, and have been seen putting zip ties on detained demonstrators.
Some lawmakers and those on the right were quick to condemn the occupation of the Fifth Avenue skyscraper.
“I know the owner of that building and he will definitely be pressing charges,” Marjorie Taylor-Greene posted on X.
Former Bush White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer suggested on Fox News that the government should use facial recognition technology to identify and deport the protesters at Trump Tower.
Fox News host Harris Faulkner said the protesters “hate Jewish-Americans” and blamed their actions on the southern border.
Khalil, a figurehead of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the Columbia campus and a green card-holding U.S. resident married to an American citizen, was detained by ICE after a raid on his home on Saturday night.
His wife is pregnant with their first child.
Khalil’s arrest came less than a week after Trump warned in a Truth Social post that there should be “no masks” at university protests and that “agitators” will be “imprisoned” or deported to “the country from which they came.”
“Secretary Marco Rubio reserves the right to revoke the visa of Mahmoud Khalil.” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said this week. “Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Secretary of State has the right to revoke a green card or a visa for individuals who serve or are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America.”
Among the arrested protesters was An Officer and a Gentleman actress Debra Winger, according to the Associated Press.
“I’m just standing up for my rights, and I’m standing up for Mahmoud Khalil, who has been abducted illegally and taken to an undisclosed location,” she told the AP. “Does that sound like America to you?”
Watch video above, via Fox News.
