Judge Orders Deportation Of Columbia Activist To Syria Or Algeria

A federal immigration judge has ordered Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil to be deported to either Algeria or Syria after ruling he hid information on his U.S. green card application.

Judge Jamee Comans issued the Sept. 12 decision in Louisiana and stated that Khalil did not disclose his internship with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and his ties to Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an anti-Israel campus coalition.

While the ruling was issued last week, it first came to light in court papers filed by Khalil’s lawyers on Wednesday as part of his lawsuit against the government.

Khalil alleges the Trump administration detained him for months and sought to deport him as part of a wider policy of punishing foreign students for protesting Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas. The Trump administration has accused him of “hateful behavior and rhetoric.” 

Khalil’s legal team confirmed that they plan to appeal the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals. 

The legal fight between Khalil and the federal government was ignited in March, when he was first detained by immigration agents in New York. Khalil is one of several international students who were detained due to their links to pro-Palestinian campus activism, which the Trump administration alleges is riddled with antisemitism — a charge the protesters deny. (RELATED: State Department Confirms Arrest And Pending Deportation Of Pro-Palestine Columbia Activist)

Initially, the Trump administration argued Khalil could be deported under a federal law allowing noncitizens to be removed if the Secretary of State determines that their presence poses “adverse foreign policy consequences.” 

In June, a federal judge blocked the government from deporting Khalil on foreign policy grounds, finding his “career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled.”

However, his immigration case continued under a separate allegation by the Trump administration. In addition to the foreign policy claims, the government had accused Khalil of leaving out details about his past associations on his immigration paperwork, including membership in a United Nations agency that works with Palestinians and his “continuing employment” at the British Embassy in Lebanon.

In last week’s ruling, Comans found that Khalil was not legally entitled to a waiver of deportation on those allegations. The immigration judge also said that Khalil shouldn’t get discretion from the court because of the “gravity of his conduct.” She called Khalil an intelligent, ivy-league educated individual” who should’ve known disclosure was required. 

“This Court finds that Respondent’s lack of candor on his [immigration forms] was not an oversight by an uninformed, uneducated applicant,” the judge wrote. “Rather, this Court finds that Respondent willfully misrepresented material fact(s) for the sole purpose of circumventing the immigration process and reducing the likelihood his application would be denied.”

Khalil has denied making misrepresentations, claiming he was not a member of the U.N. agency, but was instead an unpaid intern through Columbia.

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