MORGANTOWN — Students from West Virginia University returned to the streets to protest after Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized a Columbia University Student from his home on March 9.
Mahmoud Khalil, who had a green card, took a prominent role in Columbia University’s protests against Israel last year. After President Donald Trump took office, he signed an executive order threatening to deport foreign students who joined pro-Palestinian protests. The administration is working to revoke Khalil’s green card and is hunting a second Columbia student with a green card for holding pro-Palestinian views.
The Trump administration and the Republican Party have characterized those protests as antisemitic, despite the fact that there have been documented members of the Jewish faith taking part in the protests denouncing Israeli actions in what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have characterized as genocide.
“Freedom of speech needs to be respected,” Omar Sabbagh, president of the Muslim Student Association, said Thursday. “This is a speedometer. Speech is a red line. You can’t arrest people because of just talking. They’re not inciting violence. They’re not doing anything bad.”
Sabbagh is Syrian but is from Bridgeport, and has lived in West Virginia his entire life.
Prior to the protest, the Muslim Student Association posted to Instagram recommending only U.S. citizens attend the protest, and to carry identification proving citizenship. It also urged concealing the face to protect identity.
Sabbagh said the precautions were necessary because people are being arrested in the street just for speaking. A Turkish student studying at Tufts University, who also had a green card, was grabbed by ICE agents on Wednesday. Rumeysa Ozturk’s only offense was co-authoring an op-ed in a student newspaper that called on Tufts University to engage with student demands to cut ties with Israel, her friends and colleagues told the Associated Press. Her friends said she didn’t have close ties to campus protests.
The Trump administration is trying to revoke her green card as well.
“As an educator, I’m very concerned right now with the State Department, ICE actions against graduate students,” one WVU professor said. He asked to have his name withheld due to safety concerns. “People are literally disappearing.”
The professor called it an assault on the First Amendment, which applies to everyone in the country, regardless of whether they’re here on a student visa, he said. As far as the climate among his colleagues, he said he’s seen a chilling effect, with people not wanting to show up or speak out at the protest. He pointed out the protest was not gigantic, a rally for science in the face of DOGE about three weeks ago that was four or five times larger.
Thursday’s protest began with 30 individuals, but grew to 60 by the end. The professor admitted to being frightened, with particular fear over what would happen if his identity was exposed. He said outside groups have been doxing students and professors. That’s how the Tufts student gained the attention of the State Department, he said.
“This is an era of repression unlike any I’ve seen,” he said.
Protestors marched up to the Monongalia County Courthouse from the Mountainlair. Sabbagh called on protestors to be peaceful and stay within the bounds of the law. American Civil Liberties Union observers took notes and kept watch on the protest. Aside from demanding freedom of speech, the protest also continued advocating for Palestine and Gaza, continuing the thread from last year’s protests.
As they returned from the Courthouse, a black pickup trick with young, white males chanted “USA, USA,” at the marchers. One man in a navy blue SUV rolled his window down and screamed for the protestors to either love the country or get the “[expletive]” out.
But overall, most of Morgantown appeared receptive to the message the students carried. Honks in solidarity and raised fists were much more common sights.
The Washington Post recently reported the Trump Administration told federal civil rights attorneys in February to collect the names and nationalities of students who might have harassed Jewish students or faculty as they investigated whether universities properly responded to antisemitism on campus. Three attorneys told the Post they wondered whether the list was meant as a tip sheet the administration might use to target or deport foreign students who participated in the protests.
“West Virginia University has not received requests from the federal government for names and nationalities of students for these types of cases,” Shauna Johnson, WVU’s director of news communications, said. “We evaluate all federal directives as they are received.”
Johnson added WVU supports the First Amendment rights of students, faculty, staff and other University community members. They also expect compliance with University rules and policies, including the Campus Student Code and applicable local, state and federal laws. As to what the school will do if one of its students is detained, Johnson said, “University support needs for members of the campus community are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”
Sabbagh said what the school’s response would be in event of a seizure is a discussion he hopes to have next with WVU officials. He said the school has been supportive of the students’ efforts and they told him they would help whenever the students need assistance. Sabbagh said police were also helpful, and early on in the protest Sabbagh had the protest thank police officers for their work.
Hunter Louscher, a protestor who is also Jewish, said he has been to Israel and loves Israel. It’s beautiful, but what is being built there doesn’t need to be at the cost of all the pain and suffering happening right now. He called what’s happened to the Columbia student horrifying.
“I worry that this expansion of revoking civil rights for people that have gone through all the legal process to be here, I think that that’s a test bed for expanding anti-protest behaviors,” Louscher said. “These people have green cards. These people have done everything they needed to do to get here legally. And we are saying they do not have due process.”
However, compared to what people in Gaza are living through, Sabbagh is more than happy to continue his stand. He made it clear he’s not doing anythiing wrong nor doing anything illegal. He continuously made it clear to other protestors during the march it would be a peaceful, lawful protest.
“I’m risking so much less than what people in Gaza are risking,” Sabbagh said. “They’re risking their lives. What am I risking here, money? Influence? That’s nothing to me.”
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