Mahmoud Khalil makes ‘preposterous’ accusation after ‘abduction’ in op-ed from ICE detention
An immigration judge has ruled that Mahmoud Khalil can be deported from the U.S. due to his involvement in leading last year’s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.
Judge Jamee Comans ruled in Louisiana on Friday that Khalil, 30, can be deported, saying that the U.S. government met its burden of proof to remove him.
“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 told the court. “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 are afforded to the hundreds of others who have been here without hearing for months.”
Khalil’s team of attorneys have until April 23 to file relief applications.
IVY LEAGUE ANTI-ISRAEL RINGLEADER MAHMOUD KHALIL DENIES ALLEGATIONS AS JUDGE AWAITS DEPORTATION EVIDENCE
Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil talks to the press during the press briefing organized by pro-Palestinian protesters who set up a new encampment at Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus in New York City on June 1, 2024. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
During the hearing on Friday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorneys also spoke about how Khalil misrepresented himself on his green card application. DHS attorneys said that Khalil was not upfront about some of the organizations he is involved with.
Khalil, they said, willfully failed to disclose his employment with the Syrian office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he applied for permanent U.S. residency.
Federal officials alleged that Khalil was “inadmissible at the time of his adjustment” because of “fraud or willful misrepresentation of material fact” in his status application.
The agency also accused Khalil of failing to disclose his work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and membership in Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
Anti-Israel agitators gather on Columbia University’s campus in New York City on April 22, 2024. (Peter Gerber)
Following the ruling, Khalil’s immigration attorney, Sabrine Mohamah, called the decision “unjust as it is alarming.”
“This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and a dangerous precedent for anyone who believes in free speech and political expression,” she said.
“Mahmood is currently imprisoned 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.”
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also weighed in on the ruling, saying that the Columbia University graduate “hates America.”
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country,” she said. “Good riddance.”
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a flag on the rooftop of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York City on April 30, 2024. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
On Tuesday, Comans ordered the federal government to provide evidence by Wednesday justifying its attempt to deport Khalil.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded on behalf of the government in a roughly one-and-a-half-page letter sent to the court on Wednesday. He cited a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil’s removal from the U.S.
The provision allows the Secretary of State to deport noncitizens if the secretary determines their presence in the U.S. “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
Rubio accused Khalil of participating in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”
“Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote.
President Donald Trump hosts his first cabinet meeting as he sits next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 26. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
Khalil’s attorneys have argued that the government’s detention of the Columbia University graduate is “extraordinary and unprecedented” and that the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952’s scope is “breathtaking.”
“President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio could apply it to any speech supporting Palestinian rights by any noncitizen. And the policy provides no standards or notice as to what specific statements might subject noncitizens to this unprecedented determination,” they wrote.
The attorneys argued that, if pursued, deportation could result in a “chilling effect on political debate.”
“Many noncitizens across the country — including lawful permanent residents like Mr. Khalil — now live in fear that they will be next if their actual or imputed speech brings them into the crosshairs of this administration, and many are choosing to stay silent about their strongly-held beliefs,” they said.
Anti-Israel agitators gather on Columbia University’s campus in New York City on April 22, 2024. (Peter Gerber)
Khalil is the first in the Trump administration’s crusade to revoke student visas for participating in protests. The DHS alleged that he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
The anti-Israel protests wreaked havoc on college campuses following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, leading to Trump’s campaign promise to revoke foreigners’ student visas.
Khalil has maintained his innocence throughout the hearings, writing a blistering op-ed published in the school’s newspaper. The op-ed, titled simply “A letter to Columbia,” accused the institution of “laying the groundwork for my abduction.”
IVY LEAGUE ANTI-ISRAEL RINGLEADER MAHMOUD KHALIL WITHHELD DETAILS OF FOREIGN TIES FROM VISA APPLICATION: FEDS
He went on to compare Trump’s crackdown on anti-Israel protesters to Columbia’s own apathy toward Palestinians, listing other students who have been “snatched by the state.”
“The situation is oddly reminiscent of when I fled the brutality of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and sought refuge in Lebanon,” Khalil wrote. “The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia’s repression playbook concerning Palestine.”
He went on to accuse Columbia administrators of manufacturing “public hysteria about antisemitism without once mentioning the tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered under bombs made of your dollars.”
ARREST OF MAHMOUD KHALIL
The message came weeks after ICE agents detained Khalil in New York City in early March.
