Mahmoud Khalil, the student activist who led pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University last year, can be deported by the Trump administration, a judge ruled on Friday. Khalil was arrested at his New York City apartment on March 8, the first arrest under President Donald Trump’s agenda to crack down on protestors who joined campus demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Khalil is a green card holder and permanent legal resident who is married to Noor Abdalla, an American citizen. He was taken to a detention center in Jena, Louisiana. No criminal charges have been filed against Khalil — instead, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a 1952 Cold War law that allows for deportation of non-U.S. citizens if they are deemed a threat to American foreign policy.
Judge Jamee Comans of the LaSalle Immigration Court in Louisiana said she lacked the authority to overrule a secretary of state. ABC News reported that Khlalil addressed the court, reiterating some of Comans’ earlier comments.
"I would like to quote what you said last time, that there's nothing that's more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness," Khalil said. “Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process. This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family. I just hope that the urgency that you deemed fit for me are afforded to the hundreds of others who have been here without hearing for months.”
Khalil will not be immediately deported and his lawyers have vowed to appeal if such an order were to happen. NPR reported that “Comans gave Khalil until April 23 to request a stay of his deportation if his attorneys believe he qualifies for one. And the judge said if they don't meet that deadline, she will order him deported either to Syria, where he was born, or to Algeria, where he is a citizen.”
After the ruling, one of Khalil’s supporters read a statement from his wife Abdalla, who described the decision as a "devastating blow to our family."
"No person should be deemed removable from their home for speaking out against the killing of Palestinian families, doctors and journalists," Abdalla's statement said. "Today, in court, the government reiterated the same baseless racist claims about my husband that we have heard time and again, an attempt to smear those calling for an end to Israel's brutal genocide in Gaza. My husband is a political prisoner who is being deprived of his rights because he believes Palestinians deserve equal dignity and freedom."
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