US efforts to deport Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil likely unconstitutional, judge says

Yahoo

5 days ago

A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration's attempt to deport Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil for his activism or beliefs is likely unconstitutional.
In a 106-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote that Khalil was likely to succeed because the legal provision used to justify his detention was "unconstitutionally vague." Farbiarz, who presides in the District of New Jersey, issued the opinion on May 28.
In the same opinion, the judge denied Khalil's bid for release from an immigration detention center in Louisiana because of the U.S. government's allegations that his residency application contained inaccuracies. Those allegations needed more scrutiny, the judge wrote.
Immigration agents arrested Khalil, a green card holder married to an American citizen, on March 8 in the lobby of his student apartment building in Manhattan. A Palestinian born in Syria, Khalil was a spokesman and negotiator for pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University.
Though Khalil has not been accused of any crime, the Trump administration argued that a noncitizen can be deported if the Secretary of State has found that their presence threatens U.S. foreign policy interests, even if their beliefs, statements, or associations are "otherwise lawful." They cited a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act as the basis.
Khalil's detainment came amid a crackdown by the Trump administration on pro-Palestinian protests that it has conflated with support for terrorism and antisemitism. Protesters say the government's allegations are false and an attempt to suppress criticism of Israel.
'Free Mahmoud': Columbia students boo university president at graduation over Palestinian activist arrest
Farbiarz wrote that the U.S. government 'must meet higher standards' when making such determinations. The foreign policy statute, he added, is not clear on what is and is not allowed or on the limits of government power.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio alleged that Khalil's activities fostered a hostile environment for Jewish students and undermined U.S. policy to combat antisemitism. But the government did not specify how Khalil's actions impacted U.S. relations with other countries, Farbiarz wrote.
Khalil and his attorneys have denied allegations of antisemitism and say U.S. officials have wrongly conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
'This case, at least for now, is not about choosing between competing accounts of what happened at Columbia between 2023 and 2025,' Farbiarz said. 'Or about whether the Petitioner's First Amendment rights are being violated. Rather, the issue now before the Court has been this: does the Constitution allow the Secretary of State to use Section 1227 [of immigration law], as applied through the determination, to try to remove the Petitioner from the United States? The Court's answer: likely not."
The U.S. government also alleged that Khalil had inaccuracies about his employment history and affiliations in his application for lawful permanent residence that warranted his removal. Khalil was not likely to succeed on this, Farbiarz wrote, adding that more information was needed.
Trump targeted college students. Campuses went silent.
Pro-Palestinian protests swept through college campuses across the United States after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent military assault. Khalil, who graduated with a master's from Columbia in December, was the first publicly known case in which the Trump administration attempted to deport a student over pro-Palestinian speech or activism.
Khalil and his supporters say his arrest and attempted deportation are violations of his right to freedom of speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. Civil rights groups say it could set a precedent on the civil rights of noncitizens.
In a statement, Khalil's legal team said it would give Farbiarz the additional argument he sought as quickly as possible, according to Reuters.
"Every day Mahmoud spends languishing in an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, is an affront to justice, and we won't stop working until he is free," his lawyers said in the statement.
In recent weeks, federal judges have ordered the release of other college students from immigration detention while they challenge the government's efforts to deport them.
On May 9, a federal judge in Vermont ordered the Trump administration to release a Tufts University PhD student from Turkey whose video-recorded detention earlier this year by immigration agents drew broad condemnation. Rümeysa Öztürk was taken into custody by plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as she walked on the sidewalk near her Boston-area home on March 25.
Another Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, was released in April after he was arrested by armed Department of Homeland Security agents. Mahdawi, who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, was detained on April 14 as he was showing up to an appointment to become a citizen of the United States.
Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr. and Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY; Reuters
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Mahmoud Khalil deportation efforts by US likely violate constitution