An immigration judge in Jena, Louisiana, ruled on Friday that the Trump administration could continue its effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old Columbia University graduate and legal U.S. resident who was a negotiator and spokesperson for pro-Palestinian campus groups, according to multiple reports.
Khalil was taken and detained at his student housing facility March 8 and has been held in Louisiana for weeks. Though the judge found him eligible for removal, his lawyer told reporters Thursday that doesn’t mean Khalil’s case in immigration court is over.
“The case will move on to what’s called the relief stage of removal proceedings, where Mahmoud and our legal team will be able to litigate his right to remain in the United States, even though the immigration judge has found him deportable,” one of Khalil’s lawyers, Johnny Sinodis, told reporters. “This process plays out in immigration court, and it will most certainly require several more hearings before a final decision can be made in the immigration case.”
After the judge threatened to dismiss the removal case unless the federal government produced evidence warranting his removal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio submitted a two-page memo, first reported by the Associated Press. Rubio argued a provision from a Cold War-era immigration statute gives him the authority to “personally determine” whether someone can be deported for “otherwise lawful” beliefs and speech.
Because immigration courts are administrative courts and part of the executive branch, judges can only rule based on statutes and regulations, not on the constitutionality of executive action.
The memo did not accuse Khalil of any crimes, but Rubio charged that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. compromises the country’s ability “to combat anti-Semitism” and “protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States” — which makes him deportable.
Rubio claimed that investigations done by the Department of Homeland Security concluded Khalil participated in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities.”
The judge ruled Rubio’s determination was “facially reasonable” and gave Khalil’s counsel until April 23 to file for relief, according to CBS News.
Khalil’s lawyers argued that Rubio’s memo was not enough to show Khalil undermined U.S. foreign policy objectives, and asked the court to depose the secretary.
The constitutionality of Khalil’s detention and removal is still being challenged in a federal court in New Jersey, which put a hold on his removal last month.
“Anytime someone is in custody of the executive branch, and that custody is unlawful — even if the executive branch and the immigration courts are unwilling to make that determination — the federal court always has the power and the obligation to decide the legality of the detention and order the person released,” said Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s lawyers.
Khalil’s counsel told reporters Thursday that the removal proceedings were rushed, as his trial came only 72 hours after his first court hearing.
“It is contrary to every notion of due process. We have a right to confront, to see the evidence, confront the evidence, respond to the evidence, and to have this rush to judgment has no place in our court system at all, whether it’s immigration court or anywhere else,” Marc Van Der Hout, another one of Khalil’s lawyers, said Thursday.
Khalil will remain in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana. There, he dictated over the phone his first public statement since his detention, expressing his wishes for release so he can be with his wife, who’s expecting the birth of their first child this month.
“For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being targeted,” Khalil said in his March 20 letter. “Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”
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Emily Kennard is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.