A Louisiana judge has declared that Columbia University student and pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported.
The ruling is a big win for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has championed the case as central to his quest to rid the U.S. of antisemitism.
Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said she had no authority to question Rubio after he deemed Khalil’s involvement in last year’s protests—though lawful—antisemitic and a threat to U.S. foreign policy goals, NPR reported.
She called Rubio’s determination “facially reasonable.”
On the heels of the ruling Khalil, who helped lead a series of chaotic protests last year at the Ivy League university, issued a scathing rebuke of Comans’ judgement.
“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. Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process,” said Khalil, who is being held at a remote Louisiana detention center.
Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead a series of chaotic protests last year at Columbia University in New York City. Jeenah Moon/REUTERS
Khalil alleged that he was sent to Comans’ court, “1,000 miles away” from his family and home in New York so the Trump administration could skate due process.
“I just hope that the urgency that you deemed fit for me are afforded to the hundreds of others who have been here without hearing for months,” said Khalil.
Marc Van Der Hout, an attorney on Khalil’s legal team, warned that the case represents an eroding of free speech under the Trump administration.
“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,” Van Der Hout said.
Comans gave Khalil’s team until April 23 to appeal the order.
A protestors sign that reads “Free Mahmoud, free Rumeysa” as hundreds rally outside a New Jersey Federal Courthouse protesting the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil. Pacific Press/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Ge
Khalil, 30, has a green card and is a permanent resident of the U.S.
His case has quickly become a tinderbox for debate on a number of contentious issues, including antisemitism and free speech, as well as the Trump administration’s ability to deport legal residents.
Rubio reportedly called on a 1950s Cold War-era federal statute that allows the secretary of state authority to decide if a noncitizen’s presence threatens foreign policy initiatives, according to numerous reports.
Khalil was arrested March 8 at his university-owned apartment building in New York City, where he lives with his pregnant wife, and transported Louisiana.
In a pledge to crack down on pro-Palestine protests on college campuses, President Donald Trump lauded Khalil’s arrest as “the first arrest of many to come,” Newsweek reported.
