US administration argues it can deport prominent anti-Israel activist over his beliefs

US President Donald Trump’s administration is working to force Columbia University into a consent decree that would legally bind the school to follow federal guidelines in how it combats antisemitism, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The move comes as Columbia finds itself in the center of an attempt by the Trump administration to carry out deportations and cancel the visas of foreign students who took part in rampant anti-Israel protests last year.

Among those it is trying to deport is Mahmoud Khalil, a recently graduated foreign student who was a leader of the demonstrations at Columbia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued that Khalil can be deported for his beliefs, as they damage US foreign policy interests.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reported that the consent decree Columbia may sign is part of the administration’s negotiations with the university over freeing up $400 million in federal funding that has been blocked.

Columbia University said in an emailed statement that it “remains in active dialogue with the Federal Government to restore its critical research funding.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Any consent decree with Columbia could last for years and would give a federal judge oversight powers for ensuring that the school adheres to any agreements it meets with the federal government on how it addresses antisemitism, the Journal said.

The Trump administration has targeted several universities that it contends have failed to adequately address antisemitism and intimidation of Jewish students during anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests last year, mainly by freezing federal funding for schools.

The protests were in response to Israel’s war in Gaza, now in its 18th month, where it has been battling to dismantle the Hamas terror group following the invasion and massacre Hamas led in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Facing a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Khalil, the federal government instead submitted a brief memo earlier this week, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel non-citizens whose presence in the country damages US foreign policy interests.

Khalil is in federal custody and fighting his deportation in the courts.

The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil, a legal permanent US resident and graduate student who served as spokesperson for campus activists last year during large anti-Israel demonstrations.

Rather, Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs.

He said that while Khalil’s activities were “otherwise lawful,” letting him remain in the country would undermine “US policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”

“Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote in the undated memo.

The submission was filed on Wednesday after Judge Jamee Comans ordered the government to produce its evidence against Khalil ahead of a hearing on Friday as to whether it can continue detaining him during immigration proceedings.

Attorneys for Khalil said the memo proved the Trump administration was “targeting Mahmoud’s free speech rights about Palestine.”

“After a month of hiding the ball since Mahmoud’s late-night unjust arrest in New York and taking him away to a remote detention center in Louisiana, immigration authorities have finally admitted that they have no case whatsoever against him,” the attorneys, Marc Van Der Hout and Johnny Sinodis, said in a joint statement.

“There is not a single shred of proof that Mahmoud’s presence in America poses any threat,” they added.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, did not respond to questions about whether it had additional evidence against Khalil, writing in an emailed statement, “DHS did file evidence, but immigration court dockets are not available to the public.”

Khalil, a 30-year-old Palestinian by ethnicity who was born in Syria, was arrested March 8 in New York and taken to a detention center in Louisiana. He recently finished his coursework for a master’s degree at Columbia’s School of International Affairs. His wife, an American citizen, is due to give birth this month.

Khalil has adamantly rejected allegations of antisemitism, accusing the Trump administration in a letter sent from jail last month of “targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent.”

“Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances,” he added, “I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”

Though Rubio’s memo references additional documents, including a “subject profile of Mahmoud Khalil” and a letter from the Department of Homeland Security, the government did not submit those documents to the immigration court, according to Khalil’s lawyers.

The memo also calls for the deportation of a second lawful permanent resident, whose name is redacted in the filing.

The Trump administration has pulled billions of dollars in government funding from universities and their affiliated hospital systems in recent weeks as part of what it says is a campaign against antisemitism on college campuses, but which critics say is a crackdown on free speech. To get the money back, the administration has been telling universities to punish protesters and make other changes.

The US government has also been revoking the visas of international students who criticized Israel or accused it of mistreating Palestinians.

At the time of Khalil’s arrest, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson accused Khalil of leading activities “aligned to Hamas.”

But the government has not produced any evidence linking Khalil to Hamas, and made no reference to the group in their most recent filing.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Yunseo Chung, 21, another Columbia student and lawful US resident whom the Department of Homeland Security seeks to deport, included the Rubio letter as an exhibit in court papers filed late Thursday in Manhattan federal court.

The lawyers asked a judge to let them obtain documents from the government related to the targeting of their client, including any that reference her by name related to the State Department’s decision to move to deport her.

Chung, who was arrested on a misdemeanor charge at a recent sit-in at Barnard College protesting the expulsion of students who participated in anti-Israel activism, has been ordered freed while her legal challenge is pending.

Crackdowns have also extended to protesters from other universities involved in the widespread anti-Israel protests last year.

Twelve protesters were charged with felony vandalism on Thursday for their actions during a June 2024 pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protest at Stanford University in which demonstrators barricaded themselves inside the office of the school president.

Those charged, ranging in age from 19 to 32, entered the building and demonstrated a “conspiracy to occupy” it, prosecutors say, adding that at least one suspect entered the building by breaking a window. All suspects wore masks, they said.

Dozens of other protesters surrounded the building and chanted “Palestine will be free.”

At the time, the university said 13 people were arrested during the protest, one police officer was injured, and the building suffered “extensive” damage.

Protesters renamed the building “Dr. Adnan’s Office” in honor of Adnan Al-Bursh, a Palestinian doctor who died in an Israeli prison after months of detention.

Those charged could not immediately be reached and it is unclear whether they retained legal representation.

Stanford is also among a slew of universities whose federal funding is being threatened by Trump.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.