Judge says U.S. effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil on foreign policy grounds is likely unconstitutional

Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

NEW YORK — A federal judge said the Trump administration’s effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil because of his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University likely violates the Constitution.

In a lengthy order issued Wednesday, Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote the government’s primary justification for removing Khalil — that his beliefs may pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy — could open the door to vague and arbitrary enforcement.

Still, Farbiarz stopped short of ordering Khalil released from a Louisiana jail, finding his attorneys had not sufficiently responded to another charge brought by the government: that Khalil did not properly disclose certain personal details in his permanent residency application.

The judge said he would review additional evidence in the coming days as he continues to consider Khalil’s request for release.

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 widening crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

He has been held for nearly 12 weeks at an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, missing the birth of his first child and recent graduation from Columbia University.

Attorneys for Khalil argue his detention is part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to suppress constitutionally protected free speech.

In letters sent from the jail, Khalil has described his arrest as “a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”

The federal government has not accused Khalil of breaking any laws. Instead, they have submitted a memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio arguing that Khalil’s presence in the country may pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests.

The government has offered the same justification to detain other pro-Palestinian activists, including another student at Columbia, Mohsen Mahdawi; a Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk; and a Georgetown University scholar, Badar Khan Suri. All three have won their custody in recent weeks as they continue to fight their cases.

In Khalil’s case, the government also said he withheld information from his residency application about his involvement in some organizations, including a United Nations agency that resettles Palestinian refugees and a Columbia protest group.

The judge on Wednesday said attorneys for Khalil had not properly responded to those allegations, but would be permitted to address the issue in the future.

An attorney for Khalil, Baher Azmy, said the charges were “factually baseless and a pretextual punishment for his First Amendment speech.”

Jake Offenhartz, The Associated Press