Posted on 09/17/25
| News Source: JPost
A Louisiana immigration judge ordered Columbia University student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil to be deported to Algeria or Syria on Friday, according to documents published by the American Civil Liberties Union, leading his legal team to appeal on Wednesday to the New Jersey federal court overseeing his civil rights case.
The Columbia University Apartheid Divest leader, who was detained on March 8 and had his green card revoked over his role in belligerent activism on campus, was on September 12 denied a twelve day time extension, a change of venue to New York, and a waiver for removability.
Judge Jamee Comans did not believe Khalil was eligible for a discretionary waiver due to family ties and good legal character because he had failed to disclose his affiliations with CUAD and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency when adjusting his status in the US.
The judge contended that the waiver only applied to admissions misrepresentation, not adjustments. The judge also weighed against Khalil his short time in the country, his lack of employment and financial ties, his conditional status, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that the student activist’s presence in the country had adverse foreign policy consequences.
Khalil’s legal team was given 30 days from Friday to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, but was not confident in a reversal given high-ranking US officials targeting Khalil for “retaliation.”
White house shares a photo of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student who was arrested over involvement with protests. (credit: SCREENSHOT/X, WHITE HOUSE)The ACLU said that a court order by New Jersey district Judge Michael Farbiarz remained in effect, prohibiting his deportation and detainment as the federal case proceeds.
The legal team sent a Wednesday letter to Farbiarz, who ordered Khalil’s bail in June and is overseeing his civil rights case, arguing that Comans ruling relied on a misrepresentation charge added by the government after his detention.
Van Der Hout LLP partner Johnny Sinodis, whose firm is one of the Khalil’s legal representatives, said there was a “constant lack of humanity and allegiance to the law throughout proceedings in this farcical Louisiana immigration court, and the immigration judge’s September 12 decision is just the most recent example of what occurs when the system requires an arbiter that is anything but neutral to do the administration’s bidding.”
The ACLU, which is also representing Khalil, contended that the Louisiana judge rushed to a decision without hearing evidence, engaged in procedural irregularities, and acted against the norm by deny a waiver against a lawful permanent resident with no criminal record and with an American spouse and child.
Khalil said in a statement that it was “no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech.”
“Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colors once again,” Khalil said. “When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide. Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation.”
CUAD, the activist group which Khalil was a leading member, was responsible for protest encampments, building occupations, and anti-Israel protests that cause damage to Columbia University property, injuries among staff, and ostracization of Jewish and Israeli students. The protests served as an instant template for similar activism across US campuses.