The U.S. Government has alleged that Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil withheld that he labored for a United Nations Palestinian reduction company in his visa utility, saying that needs to be grounds for deportation.
The U.N. company referred to as UNRWA supplies meals and healthcare to Palestinian refugees and has develop into a flashpoint within the Israeli struggle in Gaza. Israel contends that 12 UNRWA workers had been concerned in Hamas’ assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, main the U.S. to halt funding of the group.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on March 8 detained Mr. Khalil, a distinguished determine within the pro-Palestinian campus protests that rocked the New York City campus final 12 months and despatched him to Louisiana in an try to take away him from the nation.
The case has drawn consideration as a check of free speech rights, with supporters of Mr. Khalil saying he was focused for publicly disagreeing with U.S. coverage on Israel and its occupation of Gaza. Mr. Khalil has referred to as himself a political prisoner.
The U.S. alleges Mr. Khalil’s presence or actions within the nation would have critical international coverage penalties.
A choose has ordered Mr. Khalil to not be deported whereas his lawsuit difficult his detention, referred to as a habeas petition, is heard in one other federal court docket.
Mr. Khalil, a local of Syria and citizen of Algeria, entered the U.S. on a student visa in 2022 and later filed to develop into a everlasting resident in 2024.
In a court docket temporary dated Sunday (March 23, 2025), the U.S. Government outlined its arguments for holding Mr. Khalil in custody whereas his elimination proceedings proceed, arguing first that the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the place the habeas case is being heard, lacked jurisdiction.
The temporary additionally says Mr. Khalil “withheld membership in certain organisations” which needs to be grounds for his deportation.
It references a March 17 doc in his deportation case that knowledgeable Mr. Khalil he might be eliminated as a result of he did not disclose that he was a political officer of UNRWA in 2023.
The U.N. stated in August an investigation discovered 9 of the company’s 32,000 employees members might have been concerned within the October 7 assaults.
The U.S. court docket discover additionally accuses Mr. Khalil of leaving off his visa utility that he labored for the Syria workplace within the British embassy in Beirut and that he was a member of the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
Attorneys for Mr. Khalil didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
One legal professional, Ramie Kassem, a co-director of the authorized clinic CLEAR, was quoted within the New York Times as saying the brand new deportation grounds had been “patently weak and pretextual.”
“That the Government scrambled to add them at the 11th hour only highlights how its motivation from the start was to retaliate against Mr. Khalil for his protected speech in support of Palestinian rights and lives,” Kassem stated, in line with the Times.
Published – March 24, 2025 11:00 am IST
