A Louisiana immigration judge last Friday ordered that Columbia University student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil be deported to Algeria or Syria, according to documents published by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
On Wednesday, his legal team submitted an appeal to the New Jersey Federal Court overseeing his civil-rights case.
The Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) leader, who was detained on March 8, had his green card revoked over his role in belligerent activism on campus. On September 12, he was denied a 12-day time extension, a change of venue to New York, and a waiver for removability.
Judge Jamee Comans said he did not believe Khalil was eligible for a discretionary waiver for his failure to disclose his affiliations with CUAD and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency when adjusting his status in the US, despite American family ties and good legal character.
The waiver only applied to admissions misrepresentation, not adjustments, he said.
Comans also cited Khalil’s short time in the country, his lack of employment and financial ties, his conditional status, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that his presence in the country had adverse foreign-policy consequences.
Khalil’s legal team was given 30 days from September 12 to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. It was not confident in a reversal, saying high-ranking US officials were targeting Khalil for “retaliation.”
The ACLU said a court order by New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz had remained in effect, prohibiting Khalil’s deportation and detainment as the federal case proceeds.
On Wednesday, his legal team sent a letter to Farbiarz, who ordered Khalil’s bail in June and is overseeing his civil-rights case, saying Comans’s ruling had relied on a misrepresentation charge added by the government after his detention.
Van Der Hout LLP partner Johnny Sinodis, whose firm is one of the Khalil’s legal representatives, said there was a “constant lack of humanity and allegiance to the law throughout proceedings in this farcical Louisiana immigration court, and the immigration judge’s September 12 decision is just the most recent example of what occurs when the system requires an arbiter that is anything but neutral to do the administration’s bidding.”
The ACLU, which is also representing Khalil, contended that the Louisiana judge had rushed to a decision without hearing evidence, engaged in procedural irregularities, and acted against the norm by denying a waiver against a lawful permanent resident with no criminal record and with an American spouse and child.
Khalil accuses Trump admin. of retaliation against free speech
Khalil said in a statement it was “no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech.”
“Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colors once again,” he said. “When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide. Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) on Wednesday condemned the news of the immigration judge’s decision and accused the Trump administration of weaponizing immigration courts to silence Khalil.
“The Trump Administration’s illegal abduction and threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil has always been in retaliation for speaking out against US complicity in the genocide in Palestine,” she wrote on X
CUAD was responsible for protest encampments, building occupations, and anti-Israel protests that caused damage to Columbia University property, injuries among staff, and ostracization of Jewish and Israeli students. The protests served as an instant template for similar activism across US campuses.
Khalil’s case is the flagship effort of the Trump administration’s push to revoke visas and deport radical activist students from the US, with the outcome potentially impacting hundreds of foreign student activists.