Update, March 24, 2025, 8:10 p.m.: In a statement released through UChicago News, the University responded to an open letter from UChicago’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors calling on UChicago to uphold academic freedom and limit its participation in potential federal law enforcement actions. 

“The University does not monitor or report on the activities of students, faculty, or staff based on immigration status, except as required by law,” the statement read. “Ongoing questions have been raised about recent federal actions and their potential impact on our research community. The University is actively engaged in scenario planning based on these developments and will communicate directly with affected individuals as more information becomes available.”

An excerpt from the statement was also shared with the Maroon in response to a request for comment related to this article.

UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP), along with Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) and UChicago’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), held a rally Tuesday to show solidarity with Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist at Columbia University who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on March 8 despite his status as a lawful permanent resident.

During the rally on the main quad, organizers voiced concerns about what they perceive to be increasing collaboration between universities and the Trump administration in cracking down on pro-Palestine activism. Following the rally, demonstrators marched to the Quadrangle Club, where University President Paul Alivisatos and Provost Katherine Baicker were said to be eating lunch.

The demonstration comes as the Trump administration continues to fight campus pro-Palestine activism, which it considers antisemitic. On Monday, the Department of Education sent warning letters to 60 institutions of higher education currently under investigation for “antisemitic harassment or discrimination.” UChicago was not among the schools who received a letter.

Columbia has faced particularly intense pressure from the federal government over claims that it has not taken sufficient measures to combat antisemitism on its campus. On March 7, the Trump administration withdrew at least $400 million in federal funding from Columbia “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” according to a Department of Education press release.

“In the first 10 days of Ramadan, 6,000 miles [from Palestine], Columbia University’s autocratic rulers gave permission to the fascist Department of Homeland Security [DHS] to detain one of their students, Mahmoud Khalil, and tried to revoke his green card,” an organizer affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim Student Association (MSA) said during the rally.

“This isn’t the first time in this country that mercy for Palestinians is criminalized, whether in the U.S. or by its universities, and it likely won’t be the last,” the organizer continued. “In fact, the war on terror’s criminalization of support for Palestine and the recent criminalization of organizations like Samidoun showed us that what’s happening to Mahmoud is part of a broad and long standing pattern of attacks, of arbitrary and political imprisonment.”

In a Monday email, interim Columbia President Katrina Armstrong denied allegations that the university requested ICE’s presence on its campus.

In a declaration filed in federal court on Monday, Amy Greer, Khalil’s lawyer, stated that a DHS agent told her that the U.S. State Department had revoked Khalil’s student visa. When Greer informed the agent that Khalil was a green card holder and not in the U.S. on a student visa, the agent told her that DHS had revoked the green card as well.

Khalil has since been transported to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, according to an agency database. On March 10, a federal district judge ordered that Khalil not be removed from the U.S. without the district court’s approval.

The DHS, which oversees ICE, did not respond to a request for comment.

In an interview, a White House official told the Free Press that Khalil was arrested on the grounds that he posed a “threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States,” despite no allegation that he broke any law.

Eman Abdelhadi, an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development and a member of FSJP, argued at the rally that the detention of a legal resident without charges is an indication that the Trump administration does not intend to follow the law when dealing with protesters.

“Mahmoud Khalil has not been charged with a crime. I repeat, he has not been charged with a crime. Even according to the unjust system of laws that govern this country, Mahmoud Khalil is innocent,” Abdelhadi said. “Mahmoud Khalil is a political prisoner. Tyrant-king Trump is sending a message that we could all be political prisoners, that nothing can protect us if we dissent, not our legal statuses and not even the constitution of this land.”

“Our message to President Alivisatos and to Provost Baicker and to every University administrator is this: You thought you could save yourself from tyranny by offering your students up to donors and to tyrants as sacrificial lambs. But tyranny is greedy, and you will never satiate it by sacrificing your people,” she continued.

“They are still going to come for you. They want to destroy academia, they have said that all along,” Abdelhadi said. “They want to destroy one of the few hubs of dissent and debate in this country, and you opened the door to that destruction. You opened the door for them, not only to destroy universities, but to wipe the First Amendment off the books. You opened the door, but it’s not too late to shut it.”

Gabriel Winant, an associate professor of history and the president of AAUP UChicago, spoke after Abdelhadi, sharing a recent letter sent to University administrators and calling on the University to uphold academic freedom and limit its participation in potential federal law enforcement actions.

“Yesterday, the Department of Education put out a list of [60] universities it’s intending to investigate for antisemitism. The University of Chicago is not on that list, and I’m sure in Levi Hall they breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Oh, good. We’ve kept our heads down. It’s worked. Let’s keep doing that,’” Winant said. “[The Education Department] didn’t say they’re done at [60]. Imagine that freedom of expression will just survive here on this little island in that kind of context. It’s completely preposterous.”

“Our University has the opportunity now to promise—as we’ve recently asked in an open letter from AAUP which could all go look at and sign—that it will not go above and beyond the requirements of the law in cooperating with federal authorities,” he continued. “That is the only path by which they can continue to protect the values that they purport to cherish and defend on this campus—academic freedom and freedom of expression. If they fail to do that, then there’s no reason for us to take seriously anything else they have to say on the topic in the future at any point.”

The University did not respond to a request for comment that included a specific question about whether it had received any communications related to the “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism” executive order.

After being informed by a rally organizer that Alivisatos and Baicker were at the Quadrangle Club “having a party,” the group marched east on the quad toward South University Avenue. Abdelhadi continued to lead the crowd in chants as they marched.

While demonstrators gathered on the sidewalk in front of the Quadrangle Club, the building’s doors were locked remotely. The Maroon witnessed the ID card reader that controls access to the building switch from green to red.

Outside of the Quadrangle Club, Ania Aizman, an assistant professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and a member of UChicago Jews for a Free Palestine, spoke about the need for activists to continue speaking out against the Trump administration and the Israel–Hamas war.

“Khalil was abducted by ICE because he spoke truth to power. His abduction is brazenly illegal, just like the eviction of two students from this University campus—Mamayan and Student A—both of those were also illegal, violating any law [or] due process on this campus,” Aizman said.

“But none of that matters, and the law doesn’t matter, if enough of us are scared,” she continued. “They are counting on us to fall silent so that the regime of lies can prevail.”

As the demonstration concluded, protesters wrote the names of political prisoners in chalk on the sidewalk and steps surrounding the building “to continue in the practice of organizations like Samidoun… and to stand up for Mamayan and Student A.”

UCUP and FSJP did not respond to requests for comment.