Immigration Judge Orders Mahmoud Khalil to Be Deported to Syria or Algeria
The Palestinian activist's lawyers say he remains protected for now by a federal judge's previous order preventing his removal while his case proceeds.
An immigration judge in Louisiana has ordered Columbia student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the US, to be deported to Syria or Algeria, alleging he failed to disclose information on his green card application, according to documents filed in federal court by his legal team.
In a letter addressed to Judge Michael Farbiarz, the federal judge overseeing Khalil’s habeas petition, his legal team wrote that on Sept. 12, an immigration judge rejected Khalil’s application for a waiver of removability, without granting a hearing on their request. The Louisiana immigration judge, Jamee Comans, instead ordered Khalil to be removed to Algeria or Syria.
“It is 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,” Khalil said in a statement.
Khalil’s legal team indicated they will appeal the decision and argued that Farbiarz’s previous order blocking the Trump administration from deporting Khalil while his habeas case proceeds remains in effect.
Khalil’s team notified Farbiarz that, alongside the appeal process, they would amend his habeas petition, updating it based on the administration’s “ongoing and accelerated detention and removal efforts,” and with new developments regarding the administration's “pretextual First Amendment retaliation” that has fueled its pursuit of Khalil.
‘Fascist Tactics’
After arresting Khalil in suspicious circumstances in March, under the justification that he posed a threat to US foreign policy, the Trump administration threw on additional allegations: that Khalil did not disclose employment with UNRWA and the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut, nor his association with a pro-Palestine Columbia University student group, in his permanent residency application.
When Farbiarz ruled Khalil could not be deported on foreign policy grounds and ordered his release in June, the administration leaned further into pursuing Khalil under these newer charges.
In her ruling, Comans wrote that Khalil’s “lack of candor and purposeful failure to disclose” this information were “significant negative factors,” that Khalil “willfully misrepresented” facts “for the sole purpose of circumventing the immigration process, and so in the “interests of this country,” she denied Khalil’s appeal for a waiver.
Khalil pushed back, saying in a statement after the decision that when the Trump administration’s “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.”
He added: “Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation.”
Khalil’s legal team wrote in the letter to Judge Farbiarz that it had 30 days from Sept. 12 to appeal the ruling, but expressed concern that it would not work out in their favor, given the relentless campaign led by the Trump administration against him.
“As a result, the only meaningful impediment to Petitioner’s physical removal from the United States would be this Court’s important order prohibiting removal during the pendency of his federal habeas case,” Khalil’s team wrote. “And nothing would preserve his lawful permanent resident status.”
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Complete travesty of justice...which is fast evaporating in the US
What the hell! This is outrageous!!!!!