An immigration judge on Friday issued that Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported because he threatens foreign policy, as claimed by the Trump administration.
The amazing step can have consequences for hundreds of other international students who have been targeted by the administration.
The Louisiana judge has given Khalil’s lawyers a deadline on April 23 to file applications for relief to stop his deportation. The judge said that if they failed to take the deadline, she would submit an order for removal to either Syria or Algeria.
Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of the media about the Rafah Camp Rebellion at Columbia University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, in New York, June 1, 2024.
Jeenah Moon/Reuters, File
The ruling stunned supporters in court as the judge issued it. Some supporters in the courthouse began to cry when she agreed with the government’s claim that they did not have to present evidence of the administration’s most important claim against Khalil.
Khalil, a green card holder and permanent legal resident who is married to a US citizen, turned to court after the hearing was postponed and spoke directly with the judge and referred to a previous comment she had made about proper process and “basic justice.”
“I would like to quote what you said last time that there is nothing more important to this court than proper process rights and basic justice. It is clear what we witnessed today, none of these principles were present today or throughout this process. That is precisely why the Trump Administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family. Me, have sent to the hundreds who have been here without listening after months, “he said. “
Judge Jamee Comans’ decision to remove Khalil fell in accordance with State Secretary Marco Rubio’s claim that his continued presence and actions in the country constitute “negative foreign policy consequence.”
One of Khalil’s supporters read a statement from Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, after the order and called it a “devastating blow to our family.”
“No persons should be considered removable from their homes to speak against the killing of Palestinian families, doctors and journalists,” states Abdalla’s statement. “Today, in court, the government repeated the same baseless racist allegations of my husband that we have heard time and time again, an attempt to lubricate those who call for a cessation of Israel’s brutal genocide in Gaza. My husband is a political prisoner who is deprived of his rights because he believes Palestinians deserve equal dignity and freedom.”
She continued, “there is nothing that the government can say about my husband who can dampen this truth. This decision is an indictment of our country’s immigration system and does not reflect truth, justice or the will of the American people.”
A view of the Central Louisiana Ice Processing Center, where Mahmoud Khalil is withheld as immigration law regulates in the deportation case for Columbia University student and Palestinian activist in Jena, LA., April 11, 2025.
Kathleen Flynn/Reuters
In a blower declaration sent to X, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that the order that Kahlil can be removed from the United States should come as “welcome news”, writing “, it is a privilege to get a visa or a green card to live and study in the US.” She completed the statement with “Good Riddance.”
The deportation hearing played as a federal trial in New Jersey remains active. A judge in this case has decided that Khalil cannot be deported while the procedure is ongoing.
“Today we saw our worst fears playing out: Mahmoud was subject to a carade of proper process, an obvious violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weapon of immigration legislation to suppress dissent. This is not over, and our fight continues,” said Marc van der Hout, a lawyer for Khalil, in a statement Friday. “If Mahmoud can be targeted in this way, just to speak for Palestinians and exercise his constitutionally protected right to freedom of expression, this can happen with anyone over any question that the Trump administration does not like. We will continue to work tirelessly until Mahmoud is free and rightly returned home to his family and society.”
The law of immigration has several boundaries of discovery and power to submit witnesses, as the judge mentioned several times on Friday.
The judge had given the government a deadline earlier this week to provide evidence of backing up several accusations it made against Khalil as a reason to deport him from the United States, including that he mistakenly represented information about his green card application.
Despite Khalil’s team presenting evidence that went against the administration’s tale of their client, including interviews where he had condemned anti-Semitism, the judge did not give this return or information and instead agreed that she did not have to go further than a two-page memo Rubio written and presented this week.
“Today’s decision is a busy judgment of baseless charges that the government did not provide evidence to substantiate because there is no evidence. Our client, Mr. Khalil, has been illegally withheld in direct retaliation of his advocate in support of Palestinian rights,” said Amol Sinha, CEO of ACLU-NJ, who also represents Khalil. “This finding of removal is a dangerous deviation from the basic freedoms of the cornerstone of our nation that protects freedom of expression during the first amendment. We will continue to advocate for Mr. Khalil’s rightful release and we are convinced that he will prevail.”
While a student at Columbia University, Khalil was part of a leadership group protesting the war in Gaza. Khalil participated in negotiations with school administrators who required the institution to cut with Israel and disposed of from Israeli companies. Khalil completed his graduate studies in Columbia in December and is ready to study in the spring.
Khalil – whose wife is giving birth to their first child – was arrested by immigration and customs enforcement in his Columbia dwellings in March.
On Thursday, the government entered into the evidence in which the memo signed by Rubio, who said he found Khalil’s presence in the United States “would compromise a convincing US foreign policy interest.”
State Secretary Marco Rubio will attend a cabinet meeting in the White House, April 10, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
Attorneys for Khalil argued on Thursday at a press conference that the government – who entered into the letter and other documents for evidence on Wednesday – did not provide evidence that Khalil’s presence in the United States is a negative foreign policy consequence.
The government has claimed under a federal federal law of 1952 called the Immigration and Nationality Act that it believes migrants are deportable “if the Secretary of State has reasonable reason to believe that the foreigner’s presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious negative foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
Attorneys for Khalil claimed that the decision is that a judge must make after the government presents evidence.
The memo signed by Rubio also makes the case that another person whose name has been edited must be deportable in accordance with the same law.
Rubio wrote that Khalil should be deported because of his alleged role in “anti -Semitic protests and disruptive activities that promote a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”
Van der Hout criticized sharply the memo during a zoom press conference on Thursday.
Rubio “talks about first change activity in the United States and the impact on people in the United States, his ‘determination’ has absolutely nothing to do with foreign policy,” said Van der Hout.
Khalil’s lawyers said the government did not provide evidence of the alleged incorrectly represented information made by Khalil on his green card application.
During a zoom press conference on Friday, his legal team said they are planning to submit the applications for exemption before the deadline of April 23. One of the forms of relief that the lawyers said they are considering is to submit asylum. They expect there to be a few more hearings in Immigration Court before making a final decision at what time there may be appeals, the legal team said.
Van der Hout said that, on the basis of the case in immigration law, they believe that the federal court is “the only place” which Khalil “will get any real righteousness.”
“What happened in Immigration Court today only confirms the need for the federal court to really intervene and make a decision in this case because the Immigration Court today made it clear that it will not, and believes it cannot,” said Amy Belssher, Nyclu Senior Staff Attack, during the press conference.
