The Trump administration, after accusing Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil of being a Hamas sympathizer without providing evidence, now asserts that Khalil’s deportation is justified because he failed to disclose connections to two organizations on his application to become a permanent US resident. His attorneys deem this argument weak.
The government states that Khalil omitted from his green card application his prior employment with the Syrian office of the British Embassy in Beirut and his membership in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA is a target of intense criticism from American and Israeli politicians, who accuse it of antisemitism.
“Khalil sought to procure an immigration benefit by fraud of willful misrepresentation of a material fact,” the US government wrote in a brief filed Sunday. “Regardless of his allegations concerning political speech, Khalil withheld membership in certain organizations… It is black-letter law that misrepresentations in this context are not protected speech.”
Khalil, a negotiator for pro-Palestinian student protesters in talks with Columbia’s administration over last spring’s contentious campus encampment against the Israel-Hamas war, was arrested on March 8 and has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since then. US District Judge Jesse Furman, an Obama appointee, has indefinitely blocked the government from deporting Khalil and transferred the case.
The Trump administration initially claimed Khalil posed a threat to US security, citing a law that allows for the deportation of noncitizens whose presence has “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” When questioned about Khalil’s involvement in terrorist activity, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar told NPR on March 13, “I think it’s clear, or we wouldn’t be talking about it,” without providing further details.
