As an activist who led pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University remains in an immigration center in Louisiana, college students across the country are protesting, believing the federal government is violating his First Amendment rights.

NEW YORK (AP) — Demonstrators from a Jewish group filled the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday to denounce the immigration arrest of a Columbia University activist who helped lead student protests on the Manhattan campus against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Columbia University on Thursday said it had doled out a range of punishments to students who occupied a campus building last spring during pro-Palestinian protests. The announcement came a week after President Donald Trump's administration announced that it had canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts in response to what it said was the Ivy League school's poor response to antisemitism on campus.

A prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead last spring's protests at Columbia University has been arrested by federal immigration agents.

Columbia said it had temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Immigration enforcement agents on Saturday arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident and Palestinian activist.

The student’s lawyers argue he engaged in protected free speech and that the government is illegally retaliating against him over it.