Immigration judge rules that Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported

JENA, La. (AP) — Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil can be deported as a national security risk, an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled Friday during a hearing over the legality of kicking the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations out of the U.S.

Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans said at the conclusion of a hearing in Jena that the government’s contention that Khalil’s presence in the United States 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.”

Lawyers for Khalil are expected to appeal. And a federal judge in New Jersey has temporarily barred Khalil’s removal from the country.

Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.

Within a day, he was flown across the country and taken to an immigration detention center in Jena, thousands of miles from his attorneys and wife, a U.S. citizen who is due to give birth soon.

Khalil’s lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to crack down on free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution.

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

At Friday’s hearing, Khalil attorney Marc Van Der Hout told the judge that the government’s submissions to the court prove the attempt to deport his client “has nothing to do with foreign policy.”

Earlier this week, Comans challenged the government to share proof that Khalil should be expelled from the country for his role in campus protests against Israel and the war in Gaza. She said if evidence does not support his removal, she would “terminate the case on Friday.”