JENA, La. (AP) — A Louisiana immigration judge ruled Friday that the U.S. can deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil based on the federal government’s argument that he poses a national security risk.
Immigration Judge Jamee Comans made the determination at the end of a nearly two-hour hearing. Khalil can appeal the ruling.
Khalil, who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the school, was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in New York and transferred to an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana.
Khalil’s lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to crack down on free speech.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he can deport Khalil because his presence in the U.S. threatens the country’s foreign policy.
Lawyers for Khalil said the memo from Rubio proved the Trump administration was “targeting Mahmoud’s free speech rights about Palestine.”
“After a month of hiding the ball since Mahmoud’s late-night unjust arrest in New York and taking him away to a remote detention center in Louisiana, immigration authorities have finally admitted that they have no case whatsoever against him,” the lawyers, Marc Van Der Hout and Johnny Sinodis, said in a joint statement.
“There is not a single shred of proof that Mahmoud’s presence in America poses any threat,” they added.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, did not respond to questions about whether it had additional evidence against Khalil, writing in an emailed statement, “DHS did file evidence, but immigration court dockets are not available to the public.”
Khalil, a 30-year-old Palestinian by ethnicity who was born in Syria, recently finished his coursework for a master’s degree at Columbia’s School of International Affairs. His wife, an American citizen, is due to give birth this month.
Khalil has adamantly rejected allegations of antisemitism, accusing the Trump administration in a letter sent from jail last month of “targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent.”
“Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances,” he added, “I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”
Though Rubio’s memo references additional documents, including a “subject profile of Mahmoud Khalil” and letter from the Department Homeland Security, the government did not submit those documents to the immigration court, according to Khalil’s lawyers.
The memo also calls for the deportation of a second lawful permanent resident, whose name is redacted in the filing.
The Trump administration has pulled billions of dollars in government funding from universities and their affiliated hospital systems in recent weeks as part of what it says is a campaign against antisemitism on college campuses, but which critics say is a crackdown on free speech. To get the money back, the administration has been telling universities to punish protesters and make other changes.
The U.S. government has also been revoking the visas of international students who criticized Israel or accused it of mistreating Palestinians.
At the time of Khalil’s arrest, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson accused Khalil of leading activities “aligned to Hamas,” referring to the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
But the government has not produced any evidence linking Khalil to Hamas, and made no reference to the group in their most recent filing.