Columbia Graduate Student Ordered Deported as National Security Risk Amid Pro-Palestinian Protests
- Victor Nwoko
- Apr 12
- 3 min read
Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, has been ordered deported by an immigration judge in Louisiana who ruled that his presence poses a national security threat due to potential foreign policy consequences.
Judge Jamee E. Comans, presiding in Jena, Louisiana, stated on Friday that the U.S. government had “established by clear and convincing evidence” that Khalil is removable under federal law. The decision followed arguments presented in court concerning Khalil’s role in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus and the legal implications of deporting him.
Khalil’s attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, said an appeal will be filed with the Board of Immigration Appeals in the coming weeks. “Nothing is going to happen quickly,” he noted. Khalil, speaking in court, criticized the process as lacking due process and fairness. “This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to the court, 1,000 miles away from my family,” he said.
Van Der Hout also issued a statement condemning the proceedings as a misuse of immigration law aimed at punishing dissent. “Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponization of immigration law to suppress dissent,” he said.
Khalil was arrested on March 8 by federal immigration agents in the lobby of his university-owned apartment in New York. He was then flown to a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, separating him from his attorneys and his wife, a U.S. citizen who is expecting a child soon.
The arrest marked the first known case under the Trump administration’s announced crackdown on student protesters demonstrating against Israel’s military actions in Gaza. The administration has cited national security concerns and used a rarely invoked statute that allows deportation if an individual’s presence may cause “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
Khalil, a 30-year-old Palestinian born in Syria after his family was displaced from Tiberias, has not been accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia University. He served as a spokesperson and negotiator for student demonstrators who had set up an encampment on campus to protest the war in Gaza. He was not involved in the subsequent occupation of an administrative building, which led to a police response and arrests.
The government maintains that noncitizens expressing pro-Palestinian or “pro-Hamas” views — referring to the Palestinian militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States — should be expelled. Although Khalil is not alleged to have supported any terrorist group, the White House accused him of “siding with terrorists,” but has provided no evidence to support that claim.
Federal judges in New York and New Jersey have temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation while legal challenges continue in multiple courts. His attorneys argue that the government’s actions violate First Amendment protections of free speech and amount to retaliation against political expression.
In addition to targeting Khalil, the administration has revoked visas of other student protesters and deported a Brown University professor alleged to have attended a funeral for a Hezbollah leader in Lebanon. Immigration agents also arrested a Georgetown University scholar who criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza on social media.
The Trump administration has announced it is withholding at least $400 million in federal research funding from Columbia University and its medical center, citing the university’s failure to curb what it deems antisemitism on campus. Some Jewish students and faculty reported harassment or exclusion during the protests due to their faith or support for Israel.
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