The lawyers said his treatment by federal authorities from Saturday, when he was first arrested, to Monday reminded Khalil of when he left Syria shortly after the forced disappearance of his friends there during a period of arbitrary detention in 2013.

Lawyers said the Palestinian student activist was handcuffed, shackled and flown to Louisiana by agents he said never identified themselves.

Hundreds of demonstrators marched downtown while a spokeswoman for President Trump said the president had the authority to detain Mahmoud Khalil.

A lawyer for the U.S. government on Wednesday said a federal judge in New York does not have jurisdiction to hear a Columbia University student's challenge to his arrest by immigration authorities. The case has become a flashpoint of the Trump administration's pledge to deport pro-Palestinian college activists.