Anti-Israel Columbia University protest leader Khalil likely to be deported to Algeria

The prominent Columbia University anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protest leader Mahmoud Khalil will likely be deported to Algeria, a US official said in a Thursday interview.

The Trump administration arrested Khalil last year during its crackdown on campus activists.

Khalil’s legal team has waged a legal battle against his detention and deportation, but an appeals court last week ruled in favor of the administration, bringing authorities a step closer to detaining Khalil again and deporting him from the US.

Following that ruling, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said Khalil will likely be deported.

“It looks like he’ll go to Algeria. That’s what the thought is right now,” McLaughlin told NewsNation.

“It’s a reminder for those who are in this country on a visa or on a green card. You are a guest in this country — act like it,” McLaughlin said. “It is a privilege, not a right, to be in this country to live or to study, and if you are pushing propaganda that relishes the killings of Americans or promotes terrorists, the door’s that way.”

Khalil was born in Syria, holds Algerian citizenship, and is a permanent US resident, but not a citizen.

Khalil was a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition of anti-Israel campus activists, while he was a graduate student at Columbia. The group is no longer recognized by the university.

After the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza, CUAD led disruptive protests at Columbia as the campus became an epicenter of anti-Israel activism. Israelis and Jews at Columbia, and a university antisemitism task force, reported widespread antisemitism during the turmoil.

CUAD has endorsed violence, called for “the total eradication of Western civilization,” backed the October 7 attack, distributed Hamas propaganda at a university library and supported an activist imprisoned for assaulting Jewish Columbia students.

Khalil, an Algerian citizen born to a Palestinian family in a refugee camp in Syria, became a high-profile figure after his arrest in March as part of the US government’s crackdown on anti-Israel activism and antisemitism on college campuses. Khalil has become a cause célèbre on the American left, garnering support from figures including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Khalil’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem is Mamdani’s chief counsel.

“Mahmoud Khalil is a New Yorker. He should remain in New York City,” Mamdani said at a Thursday press conference. “We have seen this attack on him as part of a larger attack on the freedom of speech that is especially pronounced when it comes to the use of that speech to stand up for Palestinian human rights.”

The government has justified the arrest under a seldom-used statute that allows for the expulsion of noncitizens whose beliefs are deemed to pose a threat to US foreign policy interests. He has also been accused of failing to disclose information on his green card application.

Khalil was held in custody until he secured a court-ordered release in June. He has waged a legal battle against deportation since then, as authorities continued to seek his removal from the US.

During his release, Khalil resumed his activism, appearing at protests and in the media. He has recently justified the Hamas invasion of Israel, denied any antisemitism at Columbia, met with Sen. Bernie Sanders, called for the “collapse” of the “Zionist genocidal project,” and applauded anti-Zionist Jews.

The Trump administration’s crackdown on campus activists divided American Jews, with mainstream leaders supporting action against campus antisemitism, while fearing a perceived erosion of the civil rights that have historically protected Jews.