New York assemblyman tries to confront Tom Homan over arrest of Columbia University anti-Israel activist

Assembly member and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was seen in Albany shouting at Homan over the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration and the recent detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and anti-Israel activist.

"How many more New Yorkers will you detain? How many more New Yorkers without charge?" he shouted. "Do you believe in the First Amendment, Tom Homan?"

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House. 

In a post on X, Mamdani said he confronted Homan, who visited Albany to "do Trump's bidding - push for mass deportations, carry out the assault on working class New Yorkers, and justify the unjustifiable detention of legal permanent resident and father-to-be, Mahmoud Khalil."

"Under Trump's watch, we are seeing the erosion of the fundamental rights that make us American, including the right to peacefully protest injustice and speak freely about our beliefs," Mamdani said in a statement provided by his campaign to Fox News Digital. "Meanwhile, Eric Adams is standing idly by, because he knows as long as he kisses Trump's ring, he can avoid legal accountability. New Yorkers deserve a leader who will stand up for our Constitutional rights against advancing authoritarianism."

Khalil, a Palestinian raised in Syria and a permanent U.S. resident, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at his university-owned apartment Saturday and told they were revoking his green card and student visa, according to Khalil's attorney, Amy Greer.

President Donald Trump unveiled Khalil's arrest on Monday, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the administration would revoke the green cards of any Hamas supporters in the U.S. and deport them.

"Following my previously signed executive orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a radical foreign pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University," Trump posted Monday on Truth Social. "This is the first arrest of many to come."

Mamdani said Homan smirked when confronted. 

"Because there is no answer from taking a man from his pregnant wife who is due to deliver their newborn in a month," he said, noting that Khalil told Columbia University officials that he feared for his life. 

"The cowardice that is on display across our city and our state is unacceptable," he added. "New Yorkers are looking to us. They are looking to their leaders for courage and for conviction, and what they are finding instead is collaboration."

Fox News Digital's Diana Stancy contributed to this report.