Judge to Decide Fate of Columbia Student Mahmoud Khalil in Deportation Case

On Friday, an immigration judge in the United States decided whether or not the government is allowed to deport Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil. This comes a month after his arrest at Columbia University and transfer to a Louisiana prison.

Last month, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, determined that Khalil should be removed from the U.S. because his presence there could have “potentially grave adverse foreign policy implications,” citing the Immigration and Nationality Act, 1952.

Khalil’s case is a high-profile test for President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport foreign pro-Palestinian students who are legally in the U.S. and have, like Khalil, been charged with no crime.

Khalil was born in a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Syria and has Algerian citizenship. He became a lawful permanent U.S. resident last year.

His lawyers claim they are being hurried to review evidence the government provided on Wednesday, on orders from Judge Jamee Comans at the LaSalle Immigration Court. The court is located inside an immigrant jail complex in rural Louisiana, surrounded by razor wire and double-fence.

Rubio, in a two-page letter sent to the court, Khalil’s attorneys, and shared with journalists, wrote that Khalil (30) should be removed from the case for his involvement in “antisemitic demonstrations and disruptive activity, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish Students in the United States.”

Rubio did not mention any specific laws in his letter but said that the department could revoke an immigrant’s status, even if their beliefs, associations, or statements were “otherwise legal.”

Khalil’s attorneys said they would ask Judge Comans to allow them to subpoena Rubio at the Friday hearing.

Baher Azmy is the legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights and Khalil’s attorney. He told reporters at a Thursday press conference that Rubio’s “letter” was a “tacky, Soviet-style directive that’s both empty and chilling.”

Khalil’s lawyers claim that the U.S. Government is only targeting him for his speech, which is protected by the U.S. Constitution. This includes the right to criticize U.S. Foreign Policy. Khalil claims that criticism of the U.S. Government’s support for Israel’s military occupation in Palestinian territories has been wrongly conflated as antisemitism.

The State Department does not comment on legal cases that are currently pending, according to a spokesperson.

Judge Comans announced on Tuesday that she will rule by the end this week on whether Khalil should be freed or deported, and if the case against the government is to be ended, releasing him.

Khalil has filed a separate lawsuit in New Jersey Federal Court, challenging his arrest, detention, and transfer into a jail 1,200 miles (1,930 km) away from his family in New York City and his lawyers.

Separate from the government’s judiciary branch, the U.S. Department of Justice runs the immigration court system in the United States and appoints its judges.