A Columbia University graduate student who served as a negotiator during campus protests against the Israel-Gaza war last spring has been ordered deported by a Louisiana immigration judge, in what legal experts are calling a significant test case for international students' free speech rights on American campuses.
Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans ruled Friday that Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student and legal U.S. resident, can be forced out of the country as a national security risk. The judge stated the government had "established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable" based on the government's contention that his presence posed "potentially serious foreign policy consequences."
The hearing took place in Jena, Louisiana, where Khalil was transferred shortly after his March 8 detention by federal immigration agents—the first arrest under President Donald Trump's promised crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.
Attorney Marc Van Der Hout confirmed Khalil will appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals within weeks, meaning "nothing is going to happen quickly." Multiple federal judges in New York and New Jersey have already ordered the government not to deport Khalil while his case proceeds through the courts.
Speaking after the ruling, Khalil criticized the proceedings.
"Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles [due process rights and fundamental fairness] were present today or in this whole process. This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to the court, 1,000 miles away from my family."
Khalil's legal team has characterized the hearing as "a charade of due process" and "a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing."
