of Homeland Security officials and President Donald Trump have indicated the arrest was directly tied to Khalil’s role in the protests at the New York campus last spring.

Trump has said Khalil’s arrest would be “the first of many.” Many politicians and academic and legal experts say the arrest was unlawful and violates the First Amendment.

On the UCLA campus, several groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine, Faculty for Justice in Palestine, Grad Students for Justice in Palestine and the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary held a walkout calling for Khalil’s release.

Over 100 protesters walked across the UCLA campus, marching from Royce Quad to Murphy Hall, chanting, “Free Mahmoud Khalil now.” Many held signs referencing free speech, democracy, anti-ICE statements and calls for University of California divestment from Israel.

Near the front of the group, flanked by people in academic regalia, a sign said, “UCLA Faculty and Staff; we stand with our students.”

One speaker called Khalil a political prisoner.

“He has been taken hostage by ICE,” the speaker said. “He has been taken hostage by the state. This is because he (Khalil) took a stand. He chose to fight against the genocide of the Palestinian people.”

At Murphy Hall, protesters were met with a presence of security officers on bikes, blocking the entrance of the building. Demonstrators gathered outside, where speakers addressed the crowd, calling for Khalil to be freed and passing out flyers with Khalil’s photo, which they held up as they chanted.

Graeme Blair, an associate professor of political science, was among those who addressed the crowd and spoke about Khalil’s arrest.

“I just walked out of my course on political violence to talk to you about political violence on our campus,” Blair said.

Blair called for the university to “publicly commit to protecting” students by not allowing ICE into campus buildings and for the UCLA Police Department not to comply with ICE.

“In contrast to his loud actions against student activists, Chancellor (Julio) Frenk has issued no statement about President Trump’s executive order that directly affects students,” Blair said. “… His silence is no doubt his strategy to avoid the spotlight from President Trump.”

Professor Randall Kuhn, of the university’s school of public health and department of community health sciences, also addressed UCLA’s chancellor, calling for Frenk to meet with undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff.

“At the very least, the Undergraduate Student Council asked for a meeting with Chancellor Frenk to find out why the Advisory Council on Immigration Policy was dormant, defunct and when the university would do something to protect their students,” Kuhn said.

The council he referenced was established at UCLA in 2017 “to analyze new federal immigration policies and their potentially harmful impact on the UCLA campus community,” according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. In addition to free speech concerns, concerns about immigrant rights in the United States have been expressed following Khalil’s arrest.

One speaker spoke about why she covered her face at the protest, citing concerns of surveillance by UCLA and the government.

On Royce Quad, where the protest began, several signs were posted stating that “no events are permitted in this area today,” citing a university policy that regulates the time, place and manner of “public expression activities.”

Across the road from Murphy Hall, a group of about a dozen counterprotesters held up Israeli flags and a sign with the group name Mothers Against College Antisemitism.

A member of MACA, Talia Wiesel, said she attended the protest to show her support for Jewish students, who she says have been afraid to express their Jewish identity because of protests on their campuses against Israel.

Another counterprotester, Darryl, who declined to give his last name because of privacy and safety concerns regarding his daughter, who is a UCLA student, attended the protest because his daughter experienced issues accessing buildings last spring during student protests and because he wanted to show that there are differing views.

“I’m all for free speech, but there shouldn’t be any vandalism, there shouldn’t be terrorizing of other classmates,” Darryl said.

“Everyone should know that there is another voice, another presence,” he added. “There are people who don’t want Mahmoud Khalil to stay in the United States.”

Khalil graduated in December from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, according to the university’s newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, and served as a lead negotiator for the campus’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

A lawful resident of the United States, he was arrested at his university-owned apartment in New York.

On Monday, thousands of protesters gathered in Manhattan to protest Khalil’s arrest. Also Monday, a federal judge in New York City ordered the government not to remove Khalil from the country while the judge reviews a petition challenging his detention.

According to ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System, a person named Mahmoud Khalil, born in Syria, is being detained at the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana.

The Department of Homeland Security wrote on X that “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” and stated that the arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism.”

UCLA was one of 10 schools named in a forthcoming federal task force investigation against antisemitism announced by the Department of Justice after Trump’s executive order that called for additional measures to combat antisemitism.

The university was the scene of a long-standing pro-Palestinian student encampment last spring and the site of a late-night clash that turned violent on April 30 when counterprotesters entered the encampment.

There were no reports of arrests or violence at UCLA on Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.