by Quds News Network
On Saturday, Khalil, who is a permanent resident of the US, was detained by the ICE agents when he arrived at his home at a student resident facility with his pregnant wife over his activism as he played a key role in pro-Palestine and anti-genocide demonstrations on campus. He acted as a negotiator with university officials during protests for Palestine in the spring of 2024. The agents said they planned to revoke his green card at the behest of the US Department of State.
On Monday, US District Judge Jesse Furman temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation. On Wednesday, the judge extended that prohibition in a written order – following a hearing in New York’s Manhattan federal court – to allow himself more time to consider whether the student’s arrest was unconstitutional.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Khalil is subject to deportation under a legal provision that orders the removal of migrants whose presence in the country is deemed by the US Secretary of State to be incompatible with US foreign policy, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Khalil’s lawyers said his arrest outside his university residence in Manhattan was in retaliation for his outspoken advocacy against Israel’s assault on Gaza, 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 on Wednesday.
Outside the courthouse, Kassem told reporters that the legal provision DHS referred to was rarely used and was not meant to silence dissent.
The latest legal move means that Khalil, who was initially detained in nearby New Jersey, will likely remain detained at an immigration detention centre in the southern US state of Louisiana until at least next week. His lawyers want him returned to New York and released from detention under supervision.
Khalil, who is of Palestinian origin and married to an American citizen, came to the US on a student visa in 2022 and became a permanent resident last year.
Hundreds of people rallied outside the New York City courtroom during the hearing to demand Khalil’s release. “Release Mahmoud Khalil now!” they chanted.
During the brief hearing, Kassem said his client had been allowed just one call with his legal team from the detention centre in Louisiana. But Kassem said that the call was cut off prematurely and was on a line recorded and monitored by the government.
Judge Furman ruled that Khalil and his lawyers should have one phone call on Wednesday and another on Thursday, covered by attorney-client privilege, meaning the government would not have access to their conversation.
Khalil’s arrest comes shortly after the State Department announced its plans to use AI to revoke the visas of pro-Palestine foreign students, labeling them “pro-Hamas”.
It also comes days after the New York Police Department was seen dragging students out of a sit-in at Columbia’s Barnard College, where students were protesting against the expulsion of three students for protests and disruptions in 2024.
Following his arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that the US would “be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported”.
Neither Rubio nor the DHS provided any details as to how Khalil’s activism at Columbia University, where he had openly played the role of a student negotiator with administrators, amounted to supporting Hamas.
On Monday, in a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump described the arrest of Khalil as “the first arrest of many to come”.
“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said.
Trump also revoked $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, citing its failure to address ‘antisemitism’.
As he campaigned for a second term in the White House, Trump pledged to stop the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that erupted after Israel launched its deadly war on Gaza and deport any foreign students involved.
Upon taking office, he began to issue executive actions signalling he would carry out his threats.
“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in a White House fact sheet.
“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio could revoke Khalil’s green card if Rubio determined his presence in the US runs contrary to the country’s national security and foreign policy interests.
Citing a government document detailing the civil charges Khalil faces, The Washington Post also reported on Wednesday that Rubio’s determination “is so far the Trump administration’s sole justification” for trying to deport him.
Separately, Rubio told reporters that Khalil’s case “is not about free speech”.
“This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with,” the top US diplomat told reporters at Ireland’s Shannon airport during a refuelling stop after a trip to Saudi Arabia.
“No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way,” Rubio said.
But speaking outside the Manhattan court, Khalil’s lawyer Kassem told reporters that the rarely used legal provision that the Trump administration seems to be invoking was not meant to silence dissent.
“It is not intended to be used to silence pro-Palestinian speech or any other speech that the government doesn’t like,” Kassem said.
Emails leaked by Zeteo show Khalil sought protection from Columbia University before his arrest. He warned school officials about a doxxing campaign against him. He reported threats and feared for his safety. His messages also raised concerns about discrimination, after his university ID was suddenly deactivated.
Wife of Mahmoud Khalil: ‘He is Fighting for His People’
On Saturday, Khalil, who is a permanent resident of the US, was detained by the ICE agents when he arrived at his home at a student resident facility with his pregnant wife over his activism as he played a key role in pro-Palestine and anti-genocide demonstrations on campus. He acted as a negotiator with university officials during protests for Palestine in the spring of 2024. The agents said they planned to revoke his green card at the behest of the US Department of State.
In her first media interview, Abdalla, a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant, told Reuters that Khalil asked her if she knew what to do if immigration agents came to their door. She said she was confused. As a legal permanent resident of the U.S., surely Khalil did not have to worry about that, she recalls telling him.
“I didn’t take him seriously. Clearly I was naive,” she said.
Abdalla, a 28-year-old dentist in New York, met Khalil while volunteering in Lebanon in 2016. The two are expecting their first child in late April and she said she hoped Khalil would be free by then.
She showed Reuters a picture of a recent sonogram: a boy whose name they have yet to choose.
“I think it would be very devastating for me and for him to meet his first child behind a glass screen,” Abdalla said.
On Monday, US District Judge Jesse Furman temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation. On Wednesday, the judge extended that prohibition in a written order – following a hearing in New York’s Manhattan federal court – to allow himself more time to consider whether the student’s arrest was unconstitutional.
Khalil grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2022, getting his U.S. permanent residency green card last year.
“Mahmoud is Palestinian and he’s always been interested in Palestinian politics,” she said. “He’s standing up for his people, he’s fighting for his people.”
No comments:
Post a Comment