Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian Columbia graduate student the Trump administration is trying to deport, appeared for an immigration proceeding in Louisiana Friday as his lawyers challenge his detention as cruel and unlawful.
The appearance was Khalil’s first before a judge since Homeland Security agents took him into custody at his university-owned apartment on March 8 — despite his status as a green card holder who hasn’t been accused of breaking any laws. He was transported to Jena, La., the following day.
An attorney representing Khalil in the South, Marc Van Der Hout, said he needed more time to get acquainted with his new client and the case, according to the Associated Press. A judge then set another hearing for April 8.
Video footage shows the moment Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil is taken into custody in front of his eight-months pregnant wife. (Noor Abdalla via ACLU)
Separate from his immigration case, the student’s lawyers in New York are trying to get him freed so he can fight his case outside of detention and be present for the birth of his first child. Khalil’s wife is eight months pregnant.
On Wednesday, a Manhattan federal judge transferred a habeas corpus petition filed by Khalil’s lawyers to a federal court in Newark, N.J. Rejecting the government’s effort to dismiss the petition or move it to Louisiana, Judge Jesse Furman said it was the correct course of action given that Khalil was detained in Elizabeth, N.J., when his lawyers filed it. The judge also reaffirmed a previous ruling ordering the government not to remove Khalil from the country as his legal matters play out.
The ruling critically meant that Khalil’s lawyers’ challenges to court rulings in their fight to get him out of detention wouldn’t be targeted to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, considered among the most conservative in the country. He’s expected to remain detained in Louisiana until a judge orders otherwise.
Khalil, the grandson of Palestinians, who grew up in Syria, played a prominent role in campus protests last year against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and Columbia University’s investment ties to Israel.
The president and his senior cabinet members have framed Khalil’s advocacy for Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza region as antisemitic and supportive of Hamas, which the U.S. and other Western nations have designated a terrorist group. Khalil refuted those characterizations before and after his detention.
Rather than accusing Khalil of a crime, the Trump administration has invoked a rarely cited provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to order noncitizens deported if they are deemed to pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests. The administration says he is the first of many students it plans to target.
Khalil’s arrest for political reasons has provoked widespread protests and concern over the future of the First Amendment right to free speech under Trump.
In a statement earlier this week, Khalil said he had been sleeping in cold facilities without a blanket since his arrest.
“The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent,” Khalil said. “Visa holders, green card carriers and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs.
“At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.”