NEW YORK: A US judge on Wednesday extended his order blocking federal authorities from deporting a detained Columbia University student, in a case that has become a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s pledge to deport some pro-Palestinian college activists.
US District Judge Jesse Furman had temporarily blocked Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation earlier this week, and extended the prohibition on Wednesday in a written order following a hearing in Manhattan federal court to allow himself more time to consider whether the arrest was unconstitutional.
The Department of Homeland Security says Khalil, 30, is subject to deportation under a legal provision holding that migrants whose presence in the country are deemed by the US Secretary of State to be incompatible with foreign policy may be removed, according to a document seen by Reuters.
“The Secretary of State has determined that your presence or activities in the United States would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States,” read the DHS document, dated March 9, ordering Khalil to appear before an immigration judge on March 27.
The document did not provide additional detail. The DHS did not immediately responded to requests for comment.
Khalil’s lawyers say his arrest on Saturday by DHS agents outside his university residence in Manhattan was in retaliation for his outspoken advocacy against Israel’s military assault on Gaza following Hamas’ October 2023 attack, and thus violated Khalil’s right to free speech under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
“Mr. Khalil was identified, targeted, detained and is being processed for deportation on account of his advocacy for Palestinian rights,” Khalil’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem said in court.
In her first media interview, Noora Abdalla, Khalil’s wife, told Reuters after the hearing she hoped her husband would be free and back in New York in time for the birth of their first child, who is due next month.
“It’s been so hard not having him here,” she said. “There’s a lot of emotions and pain. He’s been there for me truly every step of the way.”
Outside the courthouse on Wednesday, Kassem told reporters that the legal provision DHS referred to was rarely-used and was not meant to silence dissent.
Khalil was born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and came to the US on a student visa in 2022, becoming a permanent resident last year. He was a prominent member of Columbia’s protest movement against Israel’s military assault on Gaza.
US President Donald Trump has said on social media that Khalil supported Hamas, but his administration has not charged him with a crime and has not provided evidence to show Khalil’s alleged support for the group.
The Trump administration says pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, including Columbia, have included support for Hamas and antisemitic harassment of Jewish students. Student protest organizers say criticism of Israel is being wrongly conflated with antisemitism.
“This is not about free speech,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters earlier on Wednesday during a trip to Ireland. “Being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down … If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in.”
The case could ultimately test where immigration courts draw the line between protected free speech and alleged support for groups the United States calls terrorists.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the courthouse in lower Manhattan, holding signs reading “Release Mahmoud Khalil” and chanting “Down, down with deportation, up, up with liberation.”
At the hearing, Brandon Waterman, a lawyer for the government, said Khalil’s challenge to his arrest should be moved to New Jersey, where he was held when his lawyers first sought his release, or Louisiana, where he is currently being held.
Furman also ordered that Khalil be allowed two hour-long private phone calls with his lawyers, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday, after Kassem said Khalil’s sole phone call with a member of his legal team from detention in Louisiana so far was cut off prematurely and was on a line recorded and monitored by the government.
Even before Furman blocked it, there was no indication Khalil’s deportation was imminent. Khalil has the right to plead his case to avoid deportation before a separate judge in immigration court, a potentially lengthy process.
