The high-profile leader of anti-Israeli protests at Columbia University can be deported to Algeria or Syria after he omitted information on his immigration application, an immigration judge has ruled.
Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a Syrian-born Palestinian activist who came to the United States on a student visa, “willfully misrepresented” information on his green card application, the judge said.
Judge Jamee Comans, an immigration judge in Louisiana, issued the decision Sept. 12—after issuing a similar decision back in April. Khalil became a legal U.S. permanent resident in 2024, after he married a U.S. citizen in 2023.
Comans ordered Khalil’s deportation based on the finding that Khalil did not disclose his internship with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and ties with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an anti-Israel campus coalition, Fox News Digital reported.
But as is usual with these ping-pong legal cases, Khalil’s legal team has appealed the order and asked a federal judge to intercede.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the professional disruptor isn’t facing immediate deportation due to a separate court order related to his civil rights lawsuit in New Jersey, which bars the federal government from deporting or detaining him.
Federal authorities have argued that Khalil’s omissions involved politically sensitive affiliations, and his ties to anti-Israeli activist groups pose national security and foreign policy concerns.
Khalil also willfully failed to disclose his employment with the Syrian office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he applied for permanent U.S. residency.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, appeared on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend” to explain the two cases, saying one pertains to immigration and one pertains to him being persecuted for his free speech rights.
Under Section 237 in the Immigration and Nationality Act, Secretary of State Marco Rubio can remove a green card holder if he reasonably believes that they’re going to harm American foreign policy, Rahmani said.
“That’s what happened here,” he said, adding that Comans didn’t have to make a ruling on whether he misrepresented his background during the naturalization process.
In March, Rubio wrote a letter on behalf of the government explaining the Department of State’s position.
“Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote.
Court documents indicate Comans cited the activism ties as central to her ruling, The Washington Times reported. She denied Khalil a waiver of removability, citing the misrepresentations on his green card application.
The omissions on green card application “was not an oversight by an uninformed, uneducated applicant … rather, this court finds that respondent wilfully misrepresented material fact(s),” Comans wrote. “It is hereby further ordered that respondent be removed from the United States to Algeria, or in the alternative to Syria.”
Khalil, in a statement, called the immigration judge’s ruling an attempt to “retaliate” against him for his vociferous protesting against Israel.
“Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colors once again,” Khalil said in the ACLU statement. “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.”
Comans also refused to hear live testimony from Khalil’s wife about the hardship on her and their new son, born this spring while Khalil was in an immigration detention facility.
“The Trump administration will stop at nothing to try to silence Mr. Khalil, including by denying him, his family, and his supporters the right to testify in immigration court, in complete contravention of the U.S. Constitution,” said Johnny Sinodis, partner at Van Der Hout LLP, in the ACLU release.
Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student, has been one of the most visible leaders of nationwide pro-Palestinian campus protests. The protestors have set up encampments, disrupted classes, taken over buildings and targeted Jewish students.
He came to the United States on a student visa in December 2022 and now has a young son. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 8 at his Manhattan apartment, after ongoing protests at Columbia since the Oc. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks.
Khalil’s attorneys immediately filed a lawsuit demanding his release, claiming the Trump administration tried to “weaponize the immigration system to silence Mahmoud Khalil for his advocacy in support of Palestinian human rights,” according to the ACLU.
Khalil spent three months in an immigration detention center in Louisiana before being released in June. U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled he was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the public and should be released pending two separate cases.
Comans ruled back in April that Khalil could be deported. Farbiarz temporarily blocked that order while reviewing his claim that he’s being targeted for protected political speech and activism.
Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem previously weighed in on the April ruling, saying that the Columbia University graduate “hates America.”
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America,” Noem said on social media. “When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”
In the spring, Judge Farbiarz ruled that Rubio’s decision had illegally targeted Khalil because of political views. He said that couldn’t be used as a justification for deporting Khalil, The Washington Times reported.
Farbiarz also ordered the immigration court to do a more thorough analysis of the fraud allegations. Comans, in the new ruling, agreed he could be deported and that he is not eligible for a waiver granting special relief.
Judge Comans said Khalil is an Ivy League-educated man who should have understood the nature of his omissions on his application.
“This court cannot and will not condone such an action by granting a discretionary waiver,” the immigration judge wrote.
While acknowledging Khalil’s “positive equities” and his family, the judge said that was a normal hardship for immigrants facing deportation, not the kind of extraordinary one that would deserve a waiver from the law.
In addition, he came to the U.S. on a student visa, lacks a work history, presented no evidence of business or property ties, and has only “conditional lawful permanent resident” status right now, Comans ruled.
