Judge orders Trump admin to detail legal grounds to deport anti-Israel Columbia activist

A federal judge instructs the Trump administration to detail the legal precedent for its plan to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist whose presence in the country the government alleges could harm US foreign policy interests.

District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz in Newark, New Jersey, orders the administration to supply a catalog of every case in which US officials have employed the law being used against Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student who was a leader in anti-Israel protests on campus.

The judge asks to know the specifics behind US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination of the risks posed by Khalil’s presence in the US. He gave the government until 9:30 a.m. ET tomorrow to respond.

Khalil was arrested in March at his apartment building in New York City in the presence of his wife, a US citizen. Khalil became a permanent US resident last year and has been detained without charges since his arrest.

The administration is seeking to deport Khalil under a section of immigration law that allows for the deportation of “an alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”