Palestinian rights defender and former Columbia University graduate student, Mahmoud Khalil, has challenged a Louisiana immigration judge’s September 12 decision to deport him to Syria or Algeria, citing his alleged failure to disclose specific details on his green card application.
Khalil, a Syrian-born Algerian citizen of Palestinian origin, had previously expressed fear that he could be targeted by Israel for his activism if deported to either country.
On Thursday, September 18, his advocates submitted a letter to US District Judge Michael Farbiarz, who is currently in charge of Khalil’s civil rights case. The letter asserted that the immigration judge’s decision was procedurally flawed, violated due process and relied on what his attorneys described as ‘pretextual’ misrepresentation charges brought by the government following his detention.
In June, Farbiarz ruled that the government’s initial reasoning for Khalil’s detention, solely based on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s authority, was unconstitutional.
After the ruling, the Trump government filed new charges against Khalil, accusing him of making misrepresentations on his green card application, allegations his attorneys describe as “meritless and retaliatory.”
The immigration judge claimed that Khalil had not revealed his ties to the United Nations Relief and Works Agencies for Palestine (UNRWA) and Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an activist group advocating for an economic boycott of Israel, on his green card application, calling it “lack of candor.”
“It is 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 colours once again,” Khalil said in a statement.
Additionally, his legal team observed that it is rare for immigration judges to reject waivers for lawful permanent residents with spouses and children who have no criminal record. The lawyers claimed that the decision was rushed, which failed to allow a hearing on the evidence and engaged in “multiple procedural irregularities.”
They further claimed that the judge’s ruling strengthens their stand that the government is retaliating against Khalil for his advocacy on Palestinian human rights.
In June, after spending three months in a federal immigration detention, Khalil walked free, having become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s clampdown on campus protests.
He was the first person arrested under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel’s devastating war in Gaza.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Veena Nair | 
