A federal judge is expected to rule Friday on whether Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil will be deported after his arrest during a campus protest.
JENA, Louisiana — A federal judge ruled Friday that Colombia University Grad Student can be removed from the United States after he was arrested during pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the university’s campus, citing national security risks.
Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans said at the conclusion of a hearing in Jena that the government’s contention that Khalil’s presence in the United States posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation.
Comans said the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable.”
Lawyers for Khalil are expected to appeal. And a federal judge in New Jersey has temporarily barred Khalil’s removal from the country.
Khalil, 30, was arrested March 8 in New York and taken to a detention center in Louisiana. He is a Palestinian by ethnicity who was born in Syria. Khalil recently finished his coursework for a master’s degree at Columbia’s school of international affairs. He is married to an American citizen who is due to give birth this month.
Khalil’s lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to crack down on free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution.
At Friday’s hearing, Khalil attorney Marc Van Der Hout told the judge that the government’s submissions to the court prove the attempt to deport his client “has nothing to do with foreign policy.”
Federal officials submitted evidence late Wednesday in the immigration case of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil after a judge told the government it had 24 hours to build its case to deport Khalil.
Khalil is being detained at the ICE Detention center in Jena, Louisiana.
“I would like to quote what you said last time, that there’s nothing that’s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness,” Khalil said in a statement read by his support team. “Clearly, what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present. Today or in this whole process, this is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family. I just hope that the urgency that you deemed fit for me is afforded to the hundreds of others who have been here without hearing for months.”
According to the Associated Press, the federal government submitted a brief memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel noncitizens whose presence in the country damages U.S. foreign policy interests.
The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident and graduate student who served as spokesperson for campus activists last year during large demonstrations against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and the war in Gaza.
Rather, Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs.
He said that while Khalil’s activities were “otherwise lawful,” letting him remain in the country would undermine “U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”
“Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote in the undated memo.
Attorneys for Khalil said the memo proved the Trump administration was “targeting Mahmoud’s free speech rights about Palestine.”
“After a month of hiding the ball since Mahmoud’s late-night unjust arrest in New York and taking him away to a remote detention center in Louisiana, immigration authorities have finally admitted that they have no case whatsoever against him,” the attorneys, Marc Van Der Hout and Johnny Sinodis, said in a joint statement.
“There is not a single shred of proof that Mahmoud’s presence in America poses any threat,” they added.
Khalil’s support team issued the following statement after the court’s ruling:
“Today an immigration judge ruled that Mahmoud can be removed from this country. A decision as unjust as it is alarming. Despite the government’s failure to prove that Mahmoud broke any law, the court has decided that lawful permanent residence can have their status revoked for Pro-Palestine advocacy. This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and a dangerous precedent for anyone who believes in free speech and political expression, but this decision should not pacify you. It should embolden and encourage you.
Those who know Mahmoud, know him for his fierce commitment to justice and his refusal to back down from even the steepest of challenges. It is Mahmoud’s spirit that we must embrace in the following days.
While his deportation would devastate his wife and their soon-to-be-born child, it would also intimidate all who dare to speak for Palestinian liberation. In recent weeks, this repression has only intensified with the Visas of students presumed to be Pro-Palestine being revoked daily.
We must not give in to the chilling effect for Mahmoud … and for hundreds of others.
Mahmoud is currently in prison in Louisiana, a state that detains over 7,000 people daily and serves as the second-largest hub for immigration detention in the U.S. Louisiana’s nine detention centers, eight of which are privately operated include the only ICE facility in the country directly connected to an airport. Thus streamlining mass deportations. Across the state abuse runs rampant, detainees face solitary confinement, rotting food, medical neglect, and sexual assault.
This system is fueled by corporate greed. GEO Group, the private prison company, caging Mahmoud earned over $1 billion from ICE contracts in 2022, while paying detainees less than $1 a day. Profits bolster by retirement and 401K investments made by everyday people often unknowingly.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, did not respond to questions to the AP about whether it had additional evidence against Khalil, writing in an emailed statement, “DHS did file evidence, but immigration court dockets are not available to the public.”
Khalil’s case is the latest in the wake of President Trump’s push to crack down on those who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. The Trump administration used a rarely-used provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act to support their removal proceedings.
Khalil is a legal US resident with a green card.
“And yet even from within its walls, he sends you his gratitude for showing up today. For refusing to look away, your presence here is a declaration. We will not accept the criminalization of descent against genocide. Free Mahmoud, free all of GEO’s prisoners, and free Palestine.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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