The government has claimed that Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil deliberately mistakenly represented information about his green card application and is therefore declining for the United States.
According to the recent courts, President Donald Trump’s administration said Khalil did not succeed in revealing when he applied for his green card last year that his employment of the Syria office at the British Ambassy in Beirut went “beyond 2022” and that he was a “political affairs” for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refuge. From June to 2023.
“Khalil is now indicted as declining at the time of his adaptation of status because he tried to acquire an immigration benefit of fraud with intentionally erroneous representation of a significant fact,” lawyers said for the administration in archiving.
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 City, June 1, 2024.
Jeenah Moon/Reuters
The administration also claimed that Khalil did not tell the government he was a member of Columbia University APartheid Demest Group.
The government arrested Khalil on March 8, after invoking a rarely used provision in immigration legislation, as they said, allow the Secretary of State to revoke the legal status of people whose presence in the country could have “unfavorable foreign policy consequences.” The new accusations appear to represent an attempt to strengthen the administration’s rationale for withholding Khalil and denying his release.
“Khalil’s first change claims are a red herring and there is an independent basis for justifying removal that is sufficient to cut off Khalil’s constitutional claim,” the archiving said.
“The extra fees that the government filed last week is completely meritless,” Marc van der Hout, whose legal company represents Khalil, told ABC News in response to a comment request. “They show that the government has no case at all about this false charges that his presence in the United States would have unfavorable foreign policy consequences. This case is purely the first change -protected activity and speech, and that American citizens and regular residents are free to say what they want what is going on in the world.”
“Notwithstanding his allegations of political speech withheld Khalil membership in certain organizations and failed to reveal continued employment from the Syria office in the British Embassy in Beirut as he submitted his adaptation of status application. It is the law of black letters that there are no erroneous representations in this context, was not protected,” the government said.
During a briefing of the state department on Monday, spokesman Tammy Bruce was repeatedly asked whether the department now considered previous work for UNRWA as a reason for disability for visa seekers – but she repeatedly refused to answer.
“If you are in your efforts to come to the United States to get a visa for some reason or of a green card, there may have been no consequences or we have not done things properly in the past. A lot of things have changed with the choice of Donald Trump,” Bruce said in a general statement during the orientation.
Protesters rally to support Mahmoud Khalil outside Thurgood Marshall Courthouse, during a consultation regarding Khalil’s arrest, in New York City, 12 Mar. 2025.
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
Khalil, a leader of camp protests in Columbia last spring, was taken by his first detention from his student apartment building to 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan and then to an immigration withholding facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before being transported to an immigration and customs fans in Louisiana.
ABC News’ Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.
