Nearly 100 protesters were arrested Thursday after a sit-in at Trump Tower in New York City to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist detained over the weekend by federal immigration agents.
The organization Jewish Voice for Peace livestreamed the sit-in, showing hundreds of demonstrators packed into the building's lobby. Some held signs that read "Fight Nazis not students," "Free Mahmoud free Palestine" and "You can't deport a movement."
Many people could be heard chanting "Free Mahmoud."
Protesters arrived in two groups around 11:30 a.m. Police said some entered through a side door and others through the front, dressed in regular clothing before they revealed their "protest gear underneath."
The protesters were wearing red T-shirts that said "Stop arming Israel" and "Not in our name," the group's spokesperson, Sonya Meyerson-Knox, told NBC News. About 300 protesters were present, she said.
"My grandmother lost her cousins in the Holocaust. I grew up on these stories. We know what happens when authoritarian regimes begin targeting people, begin abducting them at night, separating their families and scapegoating," she said. "And we know that it’s one step from here to losing all right to protest and then further horrors happening, as we have seen too well in our history.
"We’re calling on everyone to speak up today because otherwise we won’t be able to tomorrow," she added.
The protesters hung two banners along the golden escalator Donald Trump rode down when he launched his first presidential campaign in 2015 before police arrived and started removing protesters from the building, she said.
Police said 98 people were arrested on charges of trespassing, obstructing government administration and resisting arrest. There were no injuries or damage to property, police said.
The protesters being detained could be seen, handcuffed in white zip ties, being escorted into police vehicles and empty city buses.
They shouted "Free Palestine" and "Free Mahmoud" as they were forced out of the gold-adorned building that sits alongside Tiffany & Co., Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana and other luxury retailers on Fifth Avenue.
Some onlookers cheered for the arrestees and joined in their chants, while others seemed annoyed by the disruption to foot traffic.
Standing across the street, Nina Levene, 60, a lifelong New Yorker whose mother is a Holocaust survivor, sneered in disgust. She called the protests "anti-American."
"When we take people into this country, they have to promise that they’re not anti our government and anti our democracy," she said, adding that Khalil was "breaking every rule, so I’m all for it."
Police drove off with the protesters at about 1:40 p.m., heading downtown.
Jewish Voice for Peace said it "demands the Trump administration release Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention."
"The detention of Mahmoud is further proof that we are on the brink of a full takeover by a repressive, authoritarian regime," the group said in a statement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Khalil, 30, a Columbia University graduate and a green card holder, on Saturday. His attorney, Amy Greer, said he was told that his student visa was being revoked.
Khalil's wife, who has not been named, said they had returned home when ICE agents confronted them. She said that they were not shown a warrant and that agents told her to go to their apartment or face arrest.
Khalil’s wife, who is eight months pregnant, said the ordeal has been "traumatizing."
"US immigration ripped my soul from me," she said in a statement Tuesday released through a spokesperson working on the case. "Instead of putting together our nursery and washing baby clothes in anticipation of our first child, I am left sitting in our apartment, wondering when Mahmoud will get a chance to call me from a detention center."
Khalil is being held at an immigration detention facility in Louisiana. In addition to the sit-in at Trump Tower, there have been several other protests over the past few days condemning his arrest.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked his deportation as the court weighs a filing challenging his arrest and planned deportation.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Khalil was detained in coordination with ICE and the State Department in support of Trump's "executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism." The spokesperson said Khalil "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization."
Trump and his administration have not provided evidence of the allegations.
On Thursday, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced a lawsuit against Columbia over its "apparent willingness to comply with the Congressional request to disclose private student records."
"Our lawsuit seeks to protect the constitutional rights of students who should not be subjected to political intimidation or invasive government overreach. We will continue to fight for the privacy and dignity of all students," CAIR-NY said.
