A federal judge has overturned a state judge’s ruling that the deportation of a prominent organizer of the Columbia University protests is unlawful.
A U.S. judge has ordered that pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil be deported after finding that he omitted information from his green card application, court documents revealed on Sept. 17.
Khalil’s lawyers said they intend to appeal the deportation order and argue that a federal district court’s orders effectively prohibit the government from immediately deporting or detaining him as the federal case proceeds.
Immigration Judge Jamee Comans ruled that Khalil “willfully misrepresented material fact(s) for the sole purpose of circumventing the immigration process and reducing the likelihood his application would be denied.” He ordered that the 30-year-old be deported to either Syria, where he was born in a Palestinian refugee camp, or to neighboring Algeria, where he also holds citizenship.
Khalil’s lawyers submitted a letter to a federal court in New Jersey overseeing his case and said they will challenge the decision.
Khalil was detained by U.S. immigration authorities for more than 100 days earlier this year as the Trump administration sought to deport him over his anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian activism.
The activist claims that he is being made an example of because of his role in the high-profile Ivy League college protest against Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, and has filed a claim seeking $20 million in damages from the Trump administration.
Khalil’s lawyers allege that he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted, and publicly smeared as an anti-Semite as part of a politically motivated effort to silence his activism.
The filing is a precursor to a lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows individuals to pursue damages for harm caused by officials acting unlawfully. Khalil said he would accept, in lieu of monetary damages, an official apology and the abandonment of the administration’s policies that he alleges target pro-Palestinian speech.
His wife, who holds U.S. citizenship, was pregnant when he was detained in a Louisiana jail, and Khalil missed the birth of their son.
When Khalil was released on June 20, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of New Jersey said that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional. Khalil has not been charged with any crime.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the U.S. government wrongly equates their criticism of Israel’s role in the war in Gaza with anti-Semitism and their pro-Palestinian advocacy with support for extremism.
Allegations
“It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech,” Khalil said in a statement.
“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.”
Human rights and free speech groups have raised concerns over the deportation attempts and threats to cut federal funding to universities where the protests occurred.
Columbia was at the heart of protests in 2024 that demanded an end to the war in Gaza and a divestment by universities of funds from companies that support Israel.
As of Sept. 18, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry reports that more than 64,718 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the war, with 163,859 injured. The ministry doesn’t make a distinction between civilians and combatants. Israel disputes these figures. The war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking approximately 250 hostages back to Gaza.
When pressed in April by Farbiarz for evidence on its reasons for seeking Khalil’s deportation, the federal government submitted a brief memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel noncitizens whose “presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
The two-page memo does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil, but Rubio states that Khalil can be expelled for his “beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful.”
Rubio said that letting Khalil remain in the country would undermine “U.S. 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.”
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