Mahmoud Khalil challenges judge's order that he be deported to Syria or Algeria

Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s legal team on Wednesday submitted a letter to a New Jersey federal judge saying that a deportation order issued to him last week is evidence of retaliation by the US government for standing "against an ongoing genocide in Palestine".

In a letter to judge Michael Farbiarz, who is overseeing Khalil’s civil case, Khalil’s lawyers said that a 12 September ruling made by an immigration judge in Louisiana ordered the permanent legal resident to be deported to either Algeria or Syria, over claims he omitted information on his green card application.

Khalil’s lawyers said judge Jamee Comans denied Khalil a waiver of removability because of “baseless” charges the government added after the former Columbia University student was detained, without hearing the evidence as is required by due process.

The lawyers also noted in their letter that it is rare for an immigration judge to deny a waiver to a lawful permanent resident with an American spouse and a child, and no criminal record.

The letter concluded that the decision was further evidence of retaliation by the administration of US President Donald Trump, and they will argue in the ongoing civil case that these charges are unlawful.

In a public statement, Khalil said he wasn’t surprised the Trump administration was continuing to retaliate against him for exercising his free speech rights and called the immigration court a “kangaroo court”.

“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,” he said, referring to the war on Gaza that began in October 2023.

“Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation,” he added.

'Bid to silence'

Khalil cannot currently be deported, as a ruling made by the federal district court in New Jersey in June, which prohibits the government from deporting or detaining him as his federal court case proceeds, remains in effect. 

The federal court ruled that the government’s original justification for Khalil’s detention was likely unconstitutional and blocked his detention and deportation on that basis. 

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Since then, the government has appealed, alleging that Khalil lied on his green card application.

Ramzi Kassem, one of Khalil's lawyers and co-director of the CLEAR Project at the City University of New York, said in a press release: “When the immigration prosecutor, judge, and jailor all answer to Donald Trump, and that one man is eager to weaponize the system in a desperate bid to silence Mahmoud Khalil, a US permanent resident whose only supposed sin is that he stands against an ongoing genocide in Palestine, this is the result."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained Khalil in March as part of a government crackdown on alleged antisemitism accusations across US campuses.

Khalil was a negotiator between students and administrators during the Gaza encampments at Columbia University in the spring of 2024, which sought to support Palestinians, pressure universities to divest from Israeli companies and help end the war on Gaza. He did not participate in the encampments himself.

Khalil was transferred to an immigration facility in Louisiana for three months - thousands of miles away from his pregnant wife and legal counsel - before judge Farbiarz said his detention was unconstitutional and ruled he must be released.

Khalil became a father in detention and was denied the opportunity to attend his wife’s birth.