Deportation of anti-Israel Palestinian Columbia activist to be challenged in federal court
US district judge temporarily blocks expulsion of Mahmoud Khalil, who was sent to a detention center in Louisiana; White House says he was arrested over ‘pro-Hamas propaganda’
A legal battle over an arrested Palestinian activist and Columbia University student that has become a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s immigration policy will play out in federal court, with the US government set to propose the next steps in the case on Tuesday.
US District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan temporarily blocked authorities on Monday from deporting Mahmoud Khalil, 29, and scheduled a hearing for Wednesday. Furman asked lawyers for the administration to respond by Tuesday afternoon with their suggestions as to what he should do.
Khalil was arrested by Department of Homeland Security agents on Saturday in one of the first efforts by US President Donald Trump to fulfill his promise to seek the deportation of some foreign students involved in the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protest movement.
Khalil, who graduated in December, was an outspoken activist at Columbia University, which experienced some of the biggest protests against Israel after its war with Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251.
Trump publicly branded Khalil on social media as a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” and said more arrests would follow.
Demonstrators on the streets of New York City, the state attorney general and the American Civil Liberties Union have denounced the arrest as an attack on free speech.
Police and hundreds of protesters briefly clashed in lower Manhattan on Monday, and at least one person was detained, according to a Reuters witness.
According to his lawyers, DHS agents initially told Khalil that his student visa had been revoked as they sought to arrest him outside his Columbia student residence. When his wife, who is eight months pregnant, told the officers that Khalil was a lawful permanent resident, the officials said his green card had been revoked as well, his lawyers said.
A green card permits a person to permanently reside in the United States and gives them the protections of the US Constitution, including the right to free speech under the First Amendment.
Khalil’s lawyers have filed what is known as a writ for habeas corpus in Manhattan federal court, asking the court to examine the legal grounds for his detention. They argued that his detention was illegal because it was retaliation for his role in protests at Columbia, which they say is political speech protected by the First Amendment.
The lawyers later asked Furman to order that Khalil be returned to New York. They said he was moved to a federal jail for migrants in Louisiana to make it more difficult for them to have access to him.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X on Sunday that the government would be revoking the visas and green cards of those supporting Hamas so they could be deported from the United States.
However, unpopular protests and speech are not grounds for revoking a green card, according to immigration law specialists. Green cards are usually revoked only after a person is charged and convicted of a serious crime. Khalil has not been charged with a crime.
Nevertheless, the anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia since October 7 have regularly seen celebrations of Hamas’s violence, including calls for an intifada.
Last year, the protests culminated in an unsanctioned protest encampment on campus property, protesters’ forcible takeover of a campus building, and dozens of arrests.
Israeli and Jewish students have said the protests and rhetoric, including from faculty, created a hostile and unsafe environment for them on campus.
Khalil’s arrest comes amid probes by the Trump administration into antisemitism on college campuses, including Columbia. Last week, the Trump administration cut $400 million of federal funding from Columbia because of the antisemitism accusations.
White House says he was arrested over ‘pro-Hamas propaganda’
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Tuesday that Khalil was detained for deportation due to support for the Hamas terror group.
“Mahmoud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges and he took advantage of that opportunity by siding with terrorists, Hamas terrorists,” Leavitt said at a press briefing.
“This is an individual who organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus, but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda fliers,” Leavitt said.
Khalil attended a protest last week at Barnard College, a Columbia affiliate, during which activists handed out pamphlets from the “Hamas media office.”
“This administration is not going to tolerate individuals having the privilege of studying in our country and then siding with pro-terrorist organizations that have killed Americans,” Leavitt said.
Rubio has the authority to revoke the green card or visa of an alien whose presence or activity in the US “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” she said.
Leavitt repeated Trump’s stated plan for arresting more foreign protesters but said she does not have an estimate on the number of planned arrests.
The Department of Homeland Security is gathering intelligence on potential targets, she said.
Columbia has been given names of other individuals who have “engaged in pro-Hamas activity” but is refusing to help federal authorities locate the suspects, Leavitt added.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
