The Department of Justice alleged over the weekend that Mahmoud Khalil, the anti-Israel activist at Columbia University that the Trump administration is seeking to deport, omitted his past work for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other organizations when applying to become a permanent U.S. resident last year.
The federal government lodged new accusations against Khalil in a Sunday filing, arguing the key omissions are grounds for deportation.
“It is black-letter law that misrepresentations in this context are not protected speech,” the DOJ’s court filing states. “Thus, Khalil’s First Amendment allegations are a red herring, and there is an independent basis to justify removal sufficient to foreclose Khalil’s constitutional claim here.”
Khalil allegedly failed to disclose his employment at UNRWA, which lasted from June to November 2023. His job title was political affairs officer, but an UNRWA spokesperson told CNN that he was only an unpaid intern and never on staff.
Notably, his short time at the controversial humanitarian agency overlapped with Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023. Some UNRWA staffers have been accused of participating in the terrorist attack on Israel. As a result, the Biden administration banned federal funding to the organization for one year, before President Donald Trump ordered an end to U.S. participation in UNRWA last month.
Khalil entered the U.S. on a student visa in December 2022 and obtained his green card in November 2024, according to the DOJ. He was arrested earlier this month by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for his anti-Israel, pro-Hamas activism during post-October 7 protests at Columbia.
The DOJ also alleged Khalil, a Syrian native and Algerian citizen, did not disclose his continuing employment at the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, at the time of his green card application. Additionally, he failed to mention he was a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the anti-Israel group that organized numerous antisemitic protests at the New York school.
Because he “withheld membership in certain organizations,” the Trump administration says the Columbia graduate should be removed from the country.
While the DOJ argues free speech doesn’t protect actions that conflict with U.S. foreign policy, Khalil’s lawyers contend their client’s political speech is covered by the First Amendment and claim he has been unconstitutionally detained.
“These late-breaking, after-the-fact allegations, silly as they are, primarily show that the government must know the supposed ‘foreign policy’ grounds for Mahmoud’s removal are absurd and unconstitutional,” Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s attorneys, told NBC News.
The federal government says it has evidence that Khalil actively supported Hamas — an allegation that his legal team has disputed — although he has not been found to have provided material support to the Palestinian terror group. His lawyers are expected to challenge the Immigration and Nationality Act, the law that Secretary of State Marco Rubio used to justify the deportation.
Rubio repeatedly said the U.S. will not tolerate Hamas sympathizers or terror supporters, in line with the White House’s goal to combat antisemitism.
The high-profile deportation case has sparked intense backlash from anti-Israel protesters and Democratic lawmakers, as the court battle continues.
A Manhattan federal judge declined the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss last week and transferred Khalil’s petition to New Jersey, where he was briefly held following his March 8 arrest. Khalil, who has not been formally charged with a crime, is currently being held at an ICE detention facility in Louisiana.