An immigration judge ruled on Friday that Columbia University activist, Mahmoud Khalil, can be deported based on threatening foreign policy, as the Trump administration alleges.
The surprising movement can have repercussions in hundreds of other international students who have been attacked by the administration.
Louisiana’s judge has given Khalil’s lawyers a deadline of April 23 to submit relief requests to stop their deportation. The judge said that if they failed to make the deadline, she would present an order of removal to Syria or Algeria.
Mahmoud Khalil talks to media members about the Rafah camp revolt at Columbia University during the continuous conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, in New York, on June 1, 2024.
Jeenah Moon/Reuters, file
The ruling surprised the supporters in court as the judge issued. Some supporters in court began to cry, since she agreed with the government’s claim that they did not have to provide any evidence in addition to the main claim of the administration against Khalil.
Khalil, head of the green card and permanent legal resident who is married to an American citizen, addressed the court after the hearing was postponed and talked to the judge directly, referring to a previous comment that had made about due process and “fundamental equity.”
“I would like to cite what you said last time, that there is nothing more important for this court than the rights of due process and fundamental equity. Clearly what we witness today, none of these principles was present today or in this whole process. This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles from my family. I just hope that the urgency is the urgency that you are exactly The hundreds of people who are here.
Judge Jamee Comans’ decision to eliminate Khalil aligned with the statement of the Secretary of State for Marco Rubio that his presence and continuous actions in the country raises “adverse consequence of foreign policy.”
One of Khalil’s supporters read a statement by Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, after the ruling, calling him a “devastating blow to our family.”
“No person should be considered removable of their home for speaking against the murder of Palestinian families, doctors and journalists,” said Abdalla’s statement. “Today, in the Court, the government reiterated the same unfounded racist statements about my husband that we have heard again and again, an attempt to stain those who ask for the end of Israel’s brutal genocide in Gaza. My husband is a political prisoner who is being deprived of their rights because he believes that the Palestinians deserve equal dignity and freedom.”
She continued: “There is nothing that the government can say about my husband that can silence this truth. This ruling is an accusation of the immigration system of our country and does not reflect the truth, justice or will of the American people.”
A vision of the Central Ice Processing Center in Louisiana where Mahmoud Khalil is arrested, since the Immigration Court governs in the case of deportation of the Student of the University of Columbia and Palestinian activist in Jena, La., On April 11, 2025.
Kathleen Flynn/Reuters
In a blister Declaration published in XThe Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, said that the ruling that Kahlil can be eliminated from the US. It must be “welcome news”, writing “, it is a privilege to receive a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America.” The statement ended with “good ridicule.”
The deportation hearing was developed as a case of the Federal Court in New Jersey remains active. A judge in that case has ruled that Khalil cannot be deported while the procedures are ongoing.
“Today we saw that our worst fears developed: Mahmoud was subject to a farce of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to an impartial hearing and a weapon of the immigration law to suppress the dissent. This is not over, and our fight continues,” Marc van der Hout, a Khalil lawyer, said in a statement on Friday. “If Mahmoud can be attacked in this way, simply to speak for the Palestinians and exercise their constitutionally protected right to freedom of expression, this can happen to anyone about any problem that Trump’s administration does not like. We will continue working tirelessly until Mahmoud is legitimately free and legitimately returned to his family and community.”
The Immigration Court has several limits on the discovery and power to quote witnesses, as the judge mentioned several times on Friday.
The judge had given the government a deadline earlier this week to present evidence to support several accusations that made Khalil as reasons to deport it from the United States, including that he misrepresented information about his green card application.
Although Khalil’s team presented evidence that was against the narrative of the administration of his client, including the interviews where he had denounced the anti -Semitism, the judge did not rule on that refutation or information and, instead, he agreed that he does not need to go beyond a two -page memorandum that Rubio wrote and presented to the court this week.
“Today’s ruling is a hurry to judge the non-foundation charges that the Government did not present evidence to justify it because there is no evidence. Our client, Mr. Khalil, has been illegally arrested in direct reprisals of his defense in support of the Palestinian rights,” said Amol Sinha, executive director of ACLU-NJ, who also represents Khalil. “This elimination finding is a dangerous deviation of fundamental freedoms at the base of our nation that protects freedom of expression under the first amendment. We will continue to advocate for the legitimate liberation of Mr. Khalil, and we are sure that it will prevail.”
While he was a student at Columbia University, Khalil was part of a leadership group that protested by the war in Gaza. Khalil participated in negotiations with school administrators who demanded that the institution reduce ties with Israel and disintegrate Israeli companies. Khalil finished his postgraduate studies in Columbia in December and will graduate in spring.
Khalil, whose wife is about to give birth to her first child, was arrested for the application of immigration and customs in her home in Columbia in March.
The Government on Thursday came into evidence the memorandum signed by Rubio saying that he found that Khalil’s presence in the United States “committed a convincing foreign policy interest.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House, on April 10, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
Khalil’s lawyers argued at a press conference on Thursday that the Government, which entered the letter and other documents such as evidence on Wednesday, did not present evidence that Khalil’s presence in the United States raises an adverse consequence of foreign policy.
The Government has argued, under a dark federal law of 1952 called Immigration and Nationality Law, which believes that migrants are deportable “if the Secretary of State has reasonable land to believe that the presence or activities of abroad in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
Khalil’s lawyers argued that the determination is that a judge does, after the government presents evidence.
The memorandum signed by Rubio also requires that another person, whose name is written, must be deportable under the same law.
Rubio wrote that Khalil should be deported due to his supposed role in “anti -Semitic protests and disruptive activities, which encourages a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”
Van Der Hout abruptly criticized Memo during a Zoom press conference on Thursday.
Rubio “talks about the activity of the first amendment in the United States and the effect on people in the US. UU. His” determination “has absolutely nothing to do with foreign policy,” said Van der Hout.
Khalil’s lawyers said the government did not present evidence on the alleged misrepresented information that Khalil made in his green card application.
During a Zoom press conference on Friday, his legal team said they plan to submit relief requests before the deadline of April 23. One of the forms of relief that lawyers said they are considering that they are requesting asylum. They anticipate that there will be some more hearings in the immigration court before making a final decision, at which time there could be appeals, the legal team said.
Van der Hout said that, according to the procedures in the Immigration Court, they believe that the Federal District Court is “the only place” that Khalil “will obtain real justice.”
“What happened in the 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 made it clear today that he will not, and believes he cannot,” said Amsa Belsher, senior lawyer for NYCLU personnel during the press conference.
