"This is the first arrest of many to come," the president said of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder abducted by immigration agents and sent to Louisiana.

The arrest of a Palestinian graduate student who represented anti-Israel protests at Columbia University marks a significant shift for the U.S. government, even from an administration that has prioritized cracking down on both immigration and campus anti-war protests.

Immigration officials detained Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests, over the weekend.