Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil will learn by the end of this week whether he’ll be sprung from jail in his deportation case, a judge said Tuesday.
Immigration Judge Jamee Comans at a hearing in Jena, Louisiana — where Khalil is being held — ordered lawyers with the Department of Homeland Security to turn over any evidence it has supporting a bid to have Khalil, a legal US resident born in Syria, deported.
An immigration judge said she will decide whether to release Mahmoud Khalil by Friday. James KeivomIf the evidence is insufficient, “then I am going to terminate the case on Friday,” Comans said.
Khalil, 30, appeared in court wearing a navy blue T-shirt over a beige sweatshirt as his lawyers entered a plea of not guilty on charges for his removal.
Khalil briefly spoke to ask Comans to allow his pregnant wife — who lives in New York — to watch the hearing virtually.
Comans agreed to let wife Noor Abdallah — an American citizen who is due to give birth next month — follow along and noted that over 600 people had requested access to follow the hearing by video.
Judge Jamee Comans ordered the feds to turn over all the evidence it has supporting a bid to deport Khalil and if it’s insufficient she will throw out the case against him. AFP via Getty Images“This is highly unusual,” Comans said. She denied others, including the media, permission to watch the hearing by video. The press was allowed to be present in the courtroom.
Khalil — was arrested by agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 8 as part of the Trump administration’s agenda targeting student protesters who opposed the Gaza war in a series of demonstrations at Columbia.
Khalil — a green card holder — was taken from his home in New York and moved to a detention facility in Louisiana a day later, where he’s been since.
Lawyers for Khalil have filed two lawsuits on his behalf — one claiming his arrest was illegal and violated his free speech rights and another seeking to block Columbia from releasing to Congress other student records for those involved in the protests. Both cases are pending.
Khalil was arrested on March 8 in New York and sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana. REUTERSThe administration in Khalil’s case used an obscure law that allows the Secretary of State to deport any noncitizen who poses a potential threat to US foreign policy. This same statute has also been invoked as the feds seek to deport other students involved in the Columbia protests and other anti-Israel protests.
The Trump administration has accused Khalil of glorifying Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, fueling antisemitism and supporting the Palestinian terror group.
The Trump administration has used an obscure law, that allows noncitizens to be deported if they pose a potential threat to US foreign policy. LP Media for NY PostKhalil came into the spotlight for his role in the student-led anti-Israel protests at the Ivy League university in April 2024. He and others have been arrested for their roles in the demonstrations. Khalil wasn’t accused of any crimes at the time.
He led a group called Columbia University Apartheid Divest which accused Israel of carrying out a genocide and ethnic cleansing in an op-ed in the school paper.
After Khalil’s arrest, the feds claimed his legal status should be revoked, claiming he lied on a visa application, hiding that he worked at the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees and hiding his association with certain organizations, presumably including Apartheid Divest.
With Post wires
