Today, an immigration judged ruled that student activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported.
As a Columbia University graduate student, Khalil led pro-Palestinian protests there last year. Kahlil, who has a green card and is a lawful permanent resident, was arrested last month in New York City at a university apartment where he lives with his wife, a U.S. citizen who is pregnant. He was transported to an immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
Khalil was arrested and detained after Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Khalil’s activism was antisemitic and that allowing him to remain in the Uniterd States would undermine a U.S. foreign policy goal of combatting antisemitism around the world. Rubio relied on a rarely used federal statute from the 1950s. The McCarran-Walter Act, or the Immigration Nationality Act of 1952, gives the secretary of state authority to decide that a noncitizen’s presence in the United States threatens the country’s foreign policy goals.
During his immigration hearing today in Louisiana, the immigration judge concluded the government had met the burden of evidence the law requires. Further, it said, “[t]his court is without jurisdiction to entertain challenges to the validity of this law under the Constitution.”
Khalil will not likely be deported immediately. He can still seek relief from and appeal the immigration judge’s decision. In addition, Khalil is fighting for his release in federal district court in New Jersey, where his lawyers have argued he has been targeted for constitutionally protected speech. The district court in New Jersey has ordered the government not to remove Khalil from the United States.