Trump administration cites new grounds for deportation in Mahmoud Khalil case
Washington — The Trump administration is citing new grounds to seek the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist whose arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has triggered a national debate.
A Syrian-born immigrant with a green card, or legal permanent residency, Khalil was arrested by ICE earlier this month outside of his Manhattan home. He has remained in ICE custody in Louisiana, while the government seeks his deportation, though a lawsuit in federal court has blocked officials from deporting him from the U.S. for the time being.
Khalil was a lead protestor in high-profile demonstrations in Columbia University last year over the war in Gaza, and civil rights groups have accused the Trump administration of punishing him because of his political speech, in violation of the First Amendment. The government has rejected that accusation.
After his arrest, the government said it was invoking a rarely used section of U.S. immigration law to justify Khalil's detention and eventual deportation. That law allows the secretary of state to make noncitizens subject to deportation if he determines their presence and activities threaten the foreign policy interests of the U.S.
But in a document submitted in federal court last week, the government revealed that officials added another immigration charge on March 17 to seek Khalil's removal from the U.S.
The document accused Khalil of immigration fraud, claiming that he failed to disclose his work or involvement with UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees; the British embassy in Beirut; and a group known as Columbia University Apartheid Divest in his green card application.
"Khalil is now charged as inadmissible at the time of his adjustment of status because he sought to procure an immigration benefit by fraud of willful misrepresentation of a material fact," the Justice Department said in a federal court filing last week.
Khalil is not facing criminal charges. But the Department of Homeland Security and Trump administration officials have publicly accused him of leading "activities aligned to Hamas," though the government has yet to present concrete evidence showing any links to the terror group.
A federal court in New Jersey is now hearing the lawsuit challenging the legality of Khalil's arrest and detention, after a federal judge in Manhattan transferred the case there. A previous court order currently bars ICE from deporting Khalil, but his lawyers are asking for a ruling that leads to his release from federal custody and finds his arrest unlawful.
In an interview with "CBS Sunday Morning," Noor Abdalla, Khalil's wife, said the accusations the Trump administration has leveled against her husband are "ridiculous."
"It's disgusting that that's what they're resorting to, that that's the tactic that they're using to make him look like the person that he's not," Abdalla told Erin Moriarty.
"It is just so simple: He just does not want his people to be murdered and killed," she added. "He doesn't want to see little kids' limbs being blown off, you know?"
