Trump administration can deport Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil over pro-Palestinian activism

Yahoo

11-04-2025

NEW YORK — An immigration judge in Louisiana ruled Friday the Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who served as a negotiator on behalf of his classmates at Columbia University with the school administration.
Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans gave Khalil's lawyers until April 23 to seek a waiver, they said in a press release after the hearing.
'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 addressed the court at the end of the hearing, according to his lawyers. 'Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process.'
Before Friday's decision, Khalil's lawyers had vowed vowed to continue pushing for Khalil to remain in the United States, even if the immigration judge ruled against him.
'We are far from the end of the road if that happens,' Johnny Sinodis, one of Khalil's immigration lawyers, said at a press conference Thursday. The immigration case, Sinodis said, would move on to what's called the 'relief stage' of removal proceedings.
'It will most certainly require several more hearings before a final decision can be made.'
In a memo ahead of the hearing, rather than present specific evidence of wrongdoing against Khalil, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued the Trump administration has the authority to deport people for their beliefs. The two-page filing did not accuse Khalil of any crimes.
Khalil, 30, who as a green card holder is a legal permanent resident, was taken into custody at his Columbia-owned apartment on March 8 and told he was being deported for his participation in campus protests against the war in Gaza and Columbia's investment ties to Israel.
The following day, Khalil was transported to a detention facility more than 1,000 miles away in Jena, Louisiana, where his immigration lawyers have been fighting his deportation, as his American citizen wife prepares to give birth to their first child later this month.
The administration has cited an obscure provision in a 1952 law that empowers Rubio to order someone deported if their presence in the country could pose unfavorable consequences for U.S. foreign policy, which the feds claim his advocacy for Palestinians does.
The Trump administration has also accused Khalil of failing to disclose parts of his work history on his green card application; his lawyers have denied the allegations.
Khalil was the first of many college students in the U.S. to be targeted over the last several weeks as part of Trump's deportation agenda. In a separate legal action in New Jersey federal court, his lawyers have challenged his detention on free speech grounds, demanding his immediate release.
'Federal court is independent of the immigration proceedings,' Baher Azmy, the legal director of Center for Constitutional Rights and one of Khalil's lawyers in the federal case, said at the press conference.
Azmy said it was not only within the New Jersey federal court's power, but its obligation, to decide if Khalil's detention runs afoul of his constitutional rights — and if so, order him released: 'So, we're moving on both fronts and recognizing that we have the most powerful arguments and the most powerful audience in federal court.'
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