Judge Says She May Order the Release of Detained Columbia University Activist

The government must turn over the evidence it compiled against activist Mahmoud Khalil, the immigration judge said.

Mahmoud Khalil at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York on April 29, 2024. Ted Shaffrey/AP Photo

An immigration judge in Louisiana said on April 8 that she will decide later this week whether the government must release Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University activist facing deportation after participating in pro-Palestinian campus protests.

At a hearing Tuesday, Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans gave the federal government until Wednesday to turn over its evidence against Khalil, a 30-year-old legal U.S. resident.

If the evidence does not support Khalil’s removal, Comans said, “then I am going to terminate the case on Friday.”

On March 8, federal immigration authorities apprehended Khalil, who participated in protests at Columbia in the wake of the 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel and Israel’s military response. The Syrian national was transported from New York to Louisiana, where he’s been held since.

Government officials have said Khalil was taken into custody and was set to be deported because Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that the presence of Khalil in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.

In a filing in a separate case in New Jersey, which challenges Khalil’s detention, the Department of Justice said that when applying for permanent residency, Khalil withheld crucial details, including his past involvement with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, his work for the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut, and his membership in Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Khalil initially entered the United States on a student visa in 2022 but became a lawful permanent resident in 2024 after marrying a U.S. citizen.

The omissions meant Khalil sought to procure an immigration benefit “by fraud or by willfully misrepresenting a material fact,” according to the filing.

The case in New Jersey is ongoing. A judge recently declined the government’s request to shift the case to Louisiana. The judge has not yet ruled on Khalil’s bid for release.

Khalil has said he was arrested in violation of his constitutional rights, including the First Amendment right to free speech.

In a letter dictated from jail last month, Khalil said his detention was 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.”

Authorities in recent weeks have also arrested other foreign nationals attending U.S. colleges, including graduate students at the University of Minnesota and Tufts University.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.