Explained: The Legal Fight to Stop Mahmoud Khalil’s Deportation

An immigration judge has ruled that a Palestinian Columbia University graduate student who participated in protests against Israel can be deported. Mahmoud Khalil’s attorneys said they will appeal Friday’s ruling.

Federal immigration agents detained Mr. Khalil last month, the first arrest under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.

Mr. Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was taken to an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, thousands of miles from his attorneys and wife, a U.S. citizen who is due to give birth soon.

Here’s a look at what has happened so far in Mr. Khalil’s legal battle and what happens next:

The arrest

Mr. Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student, had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists at Columbia University who took over a campus lawn last spring to protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The university brought police in to dismantle the encampment after a small group of protesters seized an administration building. Mr. Khalil is not accused of participating in the building occupation and wasn’t among the people arrested in connection with the demonstrations.

But images of his maskless face at protests, along with his willingness to share his name with reporters, have made him an object of scorn among those who saw the protesters and their demands as antisemitic. The White House accused Mr. Khalil of “siding with terrorists” but has yet to cite any support for the claim.

He was detained on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment.

The legal fight

Mr. Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The government has said noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Mr. Khalil’s lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to deport him for an activity that is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a rarely used statute to justify Mr. Khalil’s deportation, which gives the him power to deport those who pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

The ruling

Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans ruled Friday the government’s contention that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation.

Comans said the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable.”

Federal judges in New York and New Jersey previously ordered the government not to deport Khalil while his case plays out in court.

Next steps

Mr. Khalil’s attorneys said they will keep fighting. They plan to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. They can also pursue an asylum case on his behalf.

Even though the judge found Mr. Khalil removable on foreign policy grounds, nothing will happen quickly in the immigration proceeding, his attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, said.

The judge gave them until April 23 to seek a waiver.

“Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponization of immigration law to suppress dissent,” Mr. Van Der Hout said in a statement.

Immigration authorities have cracked down on other critics of Israel on college campuses, arresting a Georgetown University scholar who had spoken out on social media about the Israel-Gaza war, canceling the student visas of some protesters, and deporting a Brown University professor who they said had attended the Lebanon funeral of a leader of Hezbollah, another militant group that has fought with Israel.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.