A Columbia University student who is accused of taking part in antisemitic protests and posing a threat to U.S. foreign policy remains in detention in Jena, La., after a federal immigration judge said he could be deported based on U.S. immigration law.
Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said Mahmoud Khalil, who has permanent residency status in the U.S., can be removed from the country based on a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which allows Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate Khalil a deportable alien. In a memorandum released last month that has been redacted, Rubio said the presence of Khalil and others “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”
Khalil is accused of taking part in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities” and creating a “hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.” He has advocated for Palestinian rights at Columbia University, but Khalil’s legal team argues that he has committed no crime and that his detainment by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was due solely to his exercise of free-speech rights.
According to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), one of the groups working on Khalil’s legal defense, Khalil is not scheduled for deportation, and the legal team continues to work to seek bail for their client and a preliminary injunction that would lead to his release from detention and allow him to reunite with his wife in New York, who is due to give birth on April 28.
Khalil asked to address the immigration court at the end of the April 11 hearing.
“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,” he said. “Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process.”
Judge Comans has indicated that while Khalil could be deported based on the policy determination in the Rubio letter, she has yet to rule on whether he is removable based on other charges, such as allegedly not providing certain information relating to his permanent residency status. He will also be able to seek further legal relief when additional papers are filed with the immigration court on April 23.
Nora Ahmed, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, said legal efforts on Khalil’s behalf are also in play at the federal district court in New Jersey.
“Both the immigration case and federal case are actively proceeding, but the questions currently before them are different,” Ahmed told the Louisiana Record, adding that the New Jersey case focuses on Khalil’s protected First Amendment rights on behalf of Palestinian rights.
An attorney involved in the case, Noor Zafar of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said the battle to bring Khalil back to his New York home is far from over.
“We will continue undeterred to press for his release after this startling escalation of the Trump administration’s war on dissent,” Zafar said in a prepared statement. “We will fiercely defend his and others’ right to speak freely about Palestine or any other issue without fear of detention and deportation.”
Rubio’s letter argues that Khalil’s presence in the United States puts Jewish students at risk.
“The public actions and continued presence of … Khalil in the United States undermine(s) U.S. policy to combat antisemitism around the world and in the United State, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”