Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil can be deported, rules judge

JENA (Louisiana), Apr 14: Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who led the anti-Israel protesters at the university, faces deportation.

Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans in Louisiana on Friday ruled that Mahmoud Khalil – a legal permanent resident – can be deported.

The Government's argument that Khalil poses "adverse foreign policy consequences" for the US is "facially reasonable" and makes Khalil deportable, the judge said. She said Khalil can appeal.

The administration was invoking the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act which allows the Secretary of State to deport non-citizens if they are a threat to US foreign policy. Which the court allowed.

The Federal Government had submitted evidence alleging Khalil’s “beliefs, statements or associations” which made him deportable.

However, the argument that he withheld information about his previous employment while applying for green card did not find favour with the judge.

The verdict has come as a victory for the Trump administration. However, the legal battle against his detention is not over.

Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist and leader of the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupations, was detained from outside his New York City apartment building by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 8. He lived there with his pregnant US citizen wife. He has a green card.

"If Mahmoud can be targeted in this way, simply for speaking out for Palestinians and exercising his constitutionally protected right to free speech, this can happen to anyone over any issue the Trump administration dislikes," Marc van der Hout, an attorney for Khalil, said after the hearing.

Khalil's arrest had prompted protests at Columbia and across the country.

The Trump administration has already blocked funding to several universities in recent weeks including Columbia, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Brown and Princeton over mishandling of last year’s pro-Palestinian protests, allowing protests against Israel, allowing antisemitism on campus, and letting abolished DEI programs.

(By Monday, the Department of Education has already frozen $2.26 billion funds of Harvard University.)

The DHS, meanwhile, set up a new task force on Wednesday to monitor the social media activity of foreign students for anti-semitism.

The State Department had revoked 300 student visas last month. That included Tufts University student Rumeysa Oztur, who had written an opinion piece on Gaza. A student at the University of Florida was deported for violating traffic rules.

Khalil has been held for weeks in Jena. He said the Trump administration transported him "1,000 miles away" from his family.

He had separately sued the Government over his arrest and detention in a Federal court in New Jersey. The case is pending.

Khalil was born in Syria but is a citizen of Algeria.