NEW YORK (AP/1010 WINS) -- The NYPD arrested nearly 100 demonstrators who stormed the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday to denounce the immigration arrest of a grad student, Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead protests against Israel at Columbia University.
After warning the protesters to leave the Fifth Avenue building or face arrest, police put dozens of protesters in zip-ties and loaded them into a police van and city bus about an hour into the demonstration.
The NYPD said 98 people were arrested on charges that included trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest after the Trump Organization deemed them a security threat.
Kaz Daughtry, the deputy mayor for public safety and a former longtime NYPD official, said no one was injured at the protest. But he said the city would assess the situation and review its procedures “so this cannot happen again.”
The Jewish Voice for Peace protesters carried banners and chanted “Bring Mahmoud home now!"
Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident who is married to an American citizen and who hasn't been charged with breaking any laws, was arrested outside his New York City apartment on Saturday and faces deportation.
President Donald Trump has said Khalil’s arrest was the first “of many to come” and vowed on social media to deport students who he said engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
Among the protesters was actor Debra Winger, who has discussed her Jewish faith and upbringing over the years.
Winger accused the Trump administration of having “no interest in Jewish safety” and “co-opting antisemitism.”
“I’m just standing up for my rights, and I’m standing up for Mahmoud Khalil, who has been abducted illegally and taken to an undisclosed location," she told The Associated Press. "Does that sound like America to you?”
Khalil’s supporters say his arrest is an attack on free speech and have staged protests elsewhere in the city and around the country. Hundreds demonstrated Wednesday outside a Manhattan courthouse during a brief hearing on his case.
Trump Tower serves as headquarters for the Trump Organization and is where the president stays when he is in New York. The skyscraper often attracts demonstrations, both against and in support of its namesake, though protests inside are less common. The building’s main entrance opens to a multi-story atrium that is open to the public and connects visitors to stores and eateries such as the Trump Grill.
Khalil, 30, was being detained at an immigration detention center in Louisiana, where he has remained after a brief stop at a New Jersey lockup.
Columbia was a focal point of the pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across U.S. college campuses last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.
Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.
Associated Press reporters Joseph B. Frederick and Michael Hill in Albany, New York, contributed. 1010 WINS contributed to this report.