US judge orders deportation of activist Mahmoud Khalil to Syria, Algeria

Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent pro-Palestine activist who led the protests at Columbia University last year against Israel’s occupation of Gaza, must now be deported to Algeria or Syria, according to an immigration judge in the US.

According to court documents released on Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Louisiana immigration judge Jamee Comans cited Khalil as failing to provide crucial information when he applied for and obtained lawful permanent residency in the US.

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Khalil, a Syrian-born Algerian of Palestinian descent, has previously expressed concern that Israel will target him if he is deported to either country because of his activism.

Judge Comans alleged that Khalil’s application for a green card from the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an activist group that supports an Israeli economic boycott, was a “lack of candor” by the applicant.

Comans claimed that Respondent intentionally misrepresented significant facts in order to evade the immigration process and lessen the likelihood of his applications being turned down.

In response, Khalil’s attorneys stated that they intend to appeal the deportation order and referenced a federal district court’s earlier ruling that the government could not deport or detain without delay as his federal court case progressed.

Khalil’s legal team has 30 days to file an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals after the deportation ruling, which is set for September 12. Since noncitizens are “almost never” granted stays of removal, his attorneys said they anticipate a swift appeal process and an unsuccessful attempt.

After showing up at Khalil’s student apartment building on the Columbia University campus in the city on March 8, US immigration agents made the first arrest. Khalil was a former graduate student there for the previous two years.

As a result of the arrest, several foreign students were detained and deported while Trump cut back on federal funding for alleged anti-Semitism at universities across the US.

Following a ruling from US District Judge Michael Farbiarz that his detention was unconstitutional, authorities held Khalil for three months in a Louisiana immigration detention facility before releasing him in June.

Khalil’s peaceful activism was frequently described as anti-Jewish and supportive of Hamas by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other law enforcement officials, but they omitted any supporting supporting evidence.

According to Farbiarz, the Trump administration likely violated Khalil’s right to free speech by holding him and trying to deport him under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which permits the removal of foreign nationals who have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

Khalil has repeatedly been subjected to the White House’s repeated deportations, with the most recent incident involving his alleged violations of his green card.

Following the deportation ruling, Khalil’s attorneys worried that Judge Farbiarz’s “important order prohibiting removal” had become the “only meaningful impediment” to their client’s deportation.

Khalil also accused the Trump administration of using “fascist tactics” to punish him for his “exercise of free speech,” according to a statement released by the ACLU on Wednesday.