Fifth Circuit Court Judge Jamee Comans, in Louisiana, ruled today to allow the deportation from the United States of former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil. There was no evidence presented against Khalil, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a two-page memo that stated that whereas Khalil’s activities were “otherwise lawful,” allowing him to remain in the country would undermine “U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism.” Rubio used the 1952 Immigration Nationality Act, which gives the Secretary of State authority to decide that a non-citizen’s presence in the United States threatens the country’s foreign policy goals. Judge Comans said that she had no authority to question Rubio’s determination.
Lawyers for Khalil have long said that they would appeal any negative ruling and Judge Coman gave them until April 23 to request a stay of his deportation. Meanwhile there is a separate legal case in a New Jersey federal court to decide if federal agents had a right to arrest Khalil in the first place. Lawyers for Khalil have charged that the government took the case out of New Jersey, where Khalil was being held in order to “court shop” for a more favorable ruling.
“If Mahmoud [Khalil] can be targeted in this way, simply for speaking out for Palestinians and exercising his constitutionally protected right to free speech, this can happen to anyone over any issue the Trump administration dislikes,” said Marc Van Der Hout, one of Khalil’s attorneys.