Judge orders Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil to be deported to Algeria or Syria

A federal immigration judge has ordered Mahmoud Khalil — a former Columbia 
University graduate student linked to pro-Palestinian protests — to be 
deported to either Algeria or Syria.

The ruling was issued last week, but it first came to light in court 
papers filed by Khalil's lawyers on Wednesday as part of his lawsuit 
against the government. A green card holder, Khalil alleges the Trump 
administration detained him for months and sought to deport him as part of 
a wider policy of punishing foreign students for protesting Israel's 
conduct in its war against Hamas. The Trump administration has accused him 
of "hateful behavior and rhetoric." 

On Friday, Louisiana-based immigration Judge Jamee Comans denied Khalil's 
motion for a waiver preventing his removal from the U.S. because he 
allegedly misrepresented his background on his green card paperwork. 
Comans once again ordered him to be deported to either Algeria, where 
Khalil is a citizen, or Syria, where he was born.

Khalil now has 30 days to appeal Comans' ruling to a Justice Department 
body called the Board of Immigration Appeals, and if his appeal is 
rejected, he will lose his green card status and be ordered to leave the 
country, his lawyers said in a letter Wednesday to U.S. District Judge 
Michael Farbiarz.

Lawyers for Khalil told Farbiarz they plan on amending his lawsuit against 
the administration in light of "these latest, highly unusual 
developments." In a statement Wednesday, Khalil's legal team argued the 
immigration judge "rushed to a decision without providing a hearing on the 
evidence as due process requires, engaging in multiple procedural 
irregularities."

"It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate 
against me for my exercise of free speech," Khalil said in the statement. 
"Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their 
true colors once again."

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a 
statement to CBS News: "It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green 
card to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate 
for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of 
Americans, and harass Jews, take over buildings and deface property, that 
privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country."

Khalil has denied advocating for violence or engaging in antisemitic 
speech during campus protests at Columbia, saying in court papers he is 
"committed to peaceful protest."

The legal fight between Khalil and the federal government stretches back 
to March, when he was first detained by immigration agents in New York. 
Khalil is one of several international students who were detained due to 
their links to pro-Palestinian campus activism, which the Trump 
administration alleges is riddled with antisemitism — a charge the 
protesters deny.

Initially, the Trump administration argued Khalil could be deported under 
a federal law allowing noncitizens to be removed if the Secretary of State 
determines that their presence poses "adverse foreign policy 
consequences." 

In June, Farbiarz blocked the government from deporting Khalil on foreign 
policy grounds, finding his "career and reputation are being damaged and 
his speech is being chilled." A month later, Khalil was released from 
immigration detention in Louisiana.

But his immigration case continued under a separate allegation leveled by 
the Trump administration. In addition to the foreign policy claims, the 
government had accused Khalil of leaving out details about his past 
associations on his immigration paperwork, including membership in a 
United Nations agency that works with Palestinians and his "continuing 
employment" at the British Embassy in Lebanon.

In last week's ruling, Comans found that Khalil was not legally entitled 
to a waiver of deportation on those allegations. The immigration judge 
also said that Khalil shouldn't get discretion from the court because of 
the "gravity of his conduct." She called Khalil an intelligent, ivy-league 
educated individual" who should've known disclosure was required. 

"This Court finds that Respondent's lack of candor on his [immigration 
forms] was not an oversight by an uninformed, uneducated applicant," the 
judge wrote. "Rather, this Court finds that Respondent willfully 
misrepresented material fact(s) for the sole purpose of circumventing the 
immigration process and reducing the likelihood his application would be 
denied."

Khalil has denied making misrepresentations, saying he was not a member of 
the U.N. agency, but was instead an unpaid intern through Columbia. He has 
also stated that he stopped working at the British Embassy in Beirut in 
2022, despite the government's claims that he continued working there 
after that. 

In a statement Wednesday, his lawyers called the claims "baseless" and 
"pretextual."

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