A Manhattan federal judge denied the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss Mahmoud Khalil’s petition on Wednesday, and ordered that New Jersey serve as the venue for future legal proceedings in the “exceptional” case over the Trump administration’s efforts to revoke the recent graduate’s green card.
Earlier this month, the Palestinian, anti-Israel activist who graduated from Columbia University in December was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purposes of deportation. The White House said Khalil posed a potential national security threat because he promoted Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization, and participated in antisemitic activities at Columbia.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of New York, an Obama appointee, halted the administration’s effort to deport Khalil shortly after he was arrested. Now, the same judge is moving the case to New Jersey.
“In many ways, this is indeed an exceptional case, and there is a need for careful judicial review. Such judicial review is especially critical when, as here, there are colorable claims that the Executive Branch has violated the law or exercised its otherwise lawful authority in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner,” Furman wrote in a 33-page order.
“And in an exceptional case, it is all the more important for a court to apply well-established principles to the facts, lest emotions or passions interfere with reasoned analysis; that is the essence of the rule of law.”
During a procedural hearing last week, the federal government argued that the case be transferred to the Western District of Louisiana, where Khalil has been held in ICE detention for the majority of time since his arrest. The activist was briefly detained in New Jersey. If his petition were held in Louisiana, a conservative appeals court could have set a precedent for deportations.
Judge Furman said the case, replete with “serious allegations,” must be carefully reviewed by a court of law.
The defendant’s lawyers allege the government violated their client’s rights to free speech and due process protected by the First and Fifth Amendments. A legal permanent resident in the U.S., Khalil has not been formally charged with a crime.
The judge’s order preventing federal immigration authorities from deporting the anti-Israel Columbia graduate stands as the case proceeds.
In a letter released Tuesday from ICE detention, Khalil described himself as a “political prisoner” and blamed Columbia for laying the “groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing campaigns — based on racism and disinformation — to go unchecked.” He condemned the university’s recent decision to expel or suspend at least 22 students, some of whom were stripped of their bachelor’s degrees before graduating.
The activist also called for further protests, warning those who carry student visas or green cards “will all be targeted for their political beliefs.”
“In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all,” he said.
Another anti-Israel Columbia student protester, Leqaa Kordia, was arrested for staying in the U.S. over three years after her student visa expired, the Department of Homeland Security said on Friday. Kordia is a Palestinian from the West Bank.
The department also revealed a third Columbia student, Ranjani Srinivasan from India, chose to self-deport using the revamped CBP Home app after her student visa was revoked on March 5.
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said. “When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”
While Khalil hasn’t been removed from the U.S., the Trump administration successfully deported a Brown University professor, Rasha Alawieh, who attended the funeral of deceased Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last month. Alawieh, who had a H1-B visa, was sent back to Lebanon.