Referendum on UA ballot asks MIT to condemn arrest of recent Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil
The referendum asks for the MIT administration to not collaborate with immigration enforcement agencies and to affirm free speech policies on campus
On March 17, the MIT Undergraduate Association (UA) announced their annual election includes a referendum calling for the MIT administration to formally condemn the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, to “adopt a policy of non-collaboration with federal immigration enforcement agencies like ICE wherever legally possible,” and to “affirm support for freedom of political speech on campus.”
According to the Associated Press, Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian refugees and earned his masters degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs last fall, “played a prominent role” in the pro-Palestinain movement at Columbia. His March 8 arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stirred significant controversy.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that Khalil fostered antisemitism and pro-Hamas sentiment as an organizer at Columbia, stating, “This is not about free speech. This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with.” On March 10, President Trump said that his administration “would not tolerate” students engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity” and stated that Khalil’s was the “first arrest of many to come.”
Khalil’s legal advocates note that he is a legal permanent resident with a green card and has not been charged with any crime. His team, which includes lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU), contends that the Trump administration’s actions amount to a violation of the First Amendment.
Another Columbia graduate student, Ranjani Srinivasan, fled to Canada between March 9 and 13 after her student visa was revoked by ICE. On March 17, Rasha Alawieh, a nephrologist and professor at Brown University, on a H-1B work visa, was deported to Lebanon. The Department of Justice has stated that Alawieh’s cell phone included “sympathetic” photographs of leaders of Hezbollah.
On March 16, tens of protesters held a half-hour rally in support of Khalil outside 77 Massachusetts Avenue, the Institute’s main entrance. An unnamed attendee held a sign in the color scheme of the Palestinian flag reading “Free Mahmoud Khalil.” Upon inquiry from The Tech, this attendee, whose name was not obtained, stated that “it’s all on the question of freedom of speech.” Counterprotesters were also at the rally, but The Tech was not able to interview them.
Kaelyn Dunnell ’25 and Alejandro Tañón Díaz ’25, the students behind the UA referendum, wrote to The Tech that they believed their proposal was necessary because “we have yet to receive any communication from MIT reassuring us that they will firmly stand with students.” They added that “as students, we have a right to free speech and to campus activism.”
Dunnell and Tañón Díaz stated that the March 16 rally “did not have an explicit connection to our referendum in the sense that we weren't involved in the organizing or planning of [it].” They wrote, “the boasting of deportations by ICE is a tactic that the Trump administration has used to instill fear into our immigrant communities and try to immobilize us.”
As specified in a letter to the UA by Chancellor Melissa Nobles sent out in 2024 after the ceasefire referendum, the Institute has no legal obligation to heed the results of the referendum. However, under the UA’s election code, if at least 20% of undergraduates vote on the referendum, then the results will be binding. Specifically, if a simple majority of the voters choose “yes,” then the referendum will be officially adopted by the UA, which will “be bound to honor the referendum's mandate to the best of its ability.”
On March 19 at 1:12 p.m., Diego Temkin ’26, Chair of the UA Election Commission, wrote in an email to undergraduates that 735 ballots in the election were cast, or around 16% of the total undergraduate student body. Students have until Friday, March 21 to vote on the UA’s website.