Mahmoud Khalil's lawyers to appear in New Jersey court over jurisdiction
of Columbia activist's case
[March 28, 2025]
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia
University student the Trump administration is trying to expel from the
U.S. because of his role in campus protests against Israel, are expected
to appear Friday before a judge in New Jersey as they fight for his
release from federal custody.
Khalil, 30, was arrested March 8 at his university-owned apartment
building in New York, then flown south to Louisiana, where he remains
locked in an immigration detention center.
The Trump administration has cited a seldom-invoked statute authorizing
the secretary of state to deport noncitizens whose presence in the
country threatens U.S. foreign-policy interests. Khalil was born in
Syria but is a legal U.S. resident married to an American citizen.
The court fight in Newark is a continuation of one that began in New
York City, but which was transferred across the Hudson River after a
judge determined a federal court in New Jersey was the proper
jurisdiction for the case. Among the first issues for the new judge is
whether to keep the case or transfer it again. The Trump administration
wants it moved to Louisiana.
Khalil served as a negotiator for pro-Palestinian Columbia students as
they bargained with university officials over an end to their campus
tent encampment last spring. The university ultimately called in the
police to dismantle the encampment and a faction of protesters seized an
administration building.
Khalil was not among the people arrested in the Columbia protests and he
has not been accused of any crime.
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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)
But the administration has said it wants to deport Khalil because of
his prominent role in the protests, which they say amounted to
antisemitic support for Hamas, the militant group that controls
Gaza. People involved in the student-led protests deny their
criticism of Israel or support of Palestinian territorial claims is
antisemitic.
U.S. officials also have accused Khalil of failing to disclose some
of his work history on his immigration paperwork, including work at
a British embassy and an internship with the United Nations agency
for Palestinian refugees.
Other university students and faculty across the country have been
arrested by immigration officials, had their visas revoked or been
prevented from entering the U.S. because they attended
demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians.
Among them are a Gambian student at Cornell University in upstate
New York, an Indian scholar at Georgetown University in Washington,
D.C., a Lebanese doctor at Brown University’s medical school in
Rhode Island, a Turkish student at Tufts University in Massachusetts
and a Korean student at Columbia who has lived in the country since
she was 7.
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