Palestinian activist and former Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Khalil, who played a significant role in the Gaza protests at Columbia last year, was arrested by federal immigration authorities.

Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents and is now a permanent U.S. resident, was arrested Saturday night by federal immigration agents at at his university-owned residence.

Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil will remain at a detention center in Louisiana for the near future as a Manhattan federal judge weighs further arguments from the pro-Palestinian student activist’s attorneys and government lawyers seeking his deportation following a brief hearing Wednesday.