Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported, immigration judge rules

https://apnews.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-columbia-protester-ruling-
deport-fd9e80583af3109d7de0a5264e79ea61

JENA, La. (AP) — Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil can 
be forced out of the country as a national security risk, an immigration 
judge in Louisiana ruled Friday after lawyers argued the legality of 
deporting the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

The government’s contention that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. posed 
“potentially serious foreign policy consequences” satisfied requirements 
for deportation, Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans said at a hearing in 
Jena.

Comans said the government had “established by clear and convincing 
evidence that he is removable.”

After the immigration court hearing, Khalil attorney Marc Van Der Hout 
told a New Jersey federal judge that Khalil will appeal to the Board of 
Immigration Appeals within weeks.

“So nothing is going to happen quickly,” he said.

Addressing the judge at the end of the immigration hearing, Khalil 
recalled her saying at a hearing earlier in the week that “there’s nothing 
more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental 
fairness.”

“Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present 
today or in this whole process,” he added. “This is exactly why the Trump 
administration has sent me to the court, 1,000 miles away from my family.”

“Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade 
of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a 
weaponization of immigration law to suppress dissent,” Van Der Hout said 
in a statement.


Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained by federal immigration agents 
March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest 
under President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on students who joined 
campus protests against the war in Gaza.

Within a day, he was flown across the country to an immigration detention 
center in Jena, far from his attorneys and wife, a U.S. citizen due to 
give birth soon.

Khalil’s lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the 
Trump administration is trying to block free speech protected by the First 
Amendment.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a rarely used statute to justify 
Khalil’s deportation, which gives him power to deport those who pose 
“potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United 
States.”

At Friday’s hearing, Van Der Hout told the judge that the government’s 
submissions to the court prove the attempt to deport his client “has 
nothing to do with foreign policy” and said the government is trying to 
deport him for protected speech.

Khalil, a Palestinian born and raised in Syria after his grandparents were 
forcibly removed from their ancestral home in Tiberias, isn’t accused of 
breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia.

The government, however, has said noncitizens who participate in such 
demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views 
that the administration considers to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas,” 
referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 
7, 2023.

Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student, had served 
as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists at Columbia 
University who took over a campus lawn last spring to protest Israel’s 
military campaign in Gaza.

The university summoned police to dismantle the encampment after a small 
group of protesters seized an administration building. Khalil is not 
accused of participating in the building occupation and wasn’t among those 
arrested.

But images of his maskless face at protests and his willingness to share 
his name with reporters have drawn scorn from those who viewed the 
protesters and their demands as antisemitic. The White House accused 
Khalil of “siding with terrorists” but has yet to cite any support for the 
claim.

Federal judges in New York and New Jersey have ordered the government not 
to deport Khalil while his case plays out in multiple courts.

The Trump administration has said it is taking at least $400 million in 
federal funding away from research programs at Columbia and its medical 
center to punish it for not adequately fighting what it considers to be 
antisemitism on campus.

Some Jewish students and faculty complained about being harassed during 
the demonstrations or ostracized because of their faith or their support 
of Israel.

Immigration authorities have cracked down on other critics of Israel on 
college campuses, arresting a Georgetown University scholar who had spoken 
out on social media about the Israel-Gaza war, canceling the student visas 
of some protesters and deporting a Brown University professor who they 
said had attended the Lebanon funeral of a leader of Hezbollah, another 
militant group that has fought with Israel.


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and 
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden 
fiasco, President Trump.  

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.