{"id":3344,"date":"2025-04-14T04:54:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T04:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=3344"},"modified":"2025-04-14T04:54:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T04:54:45","slug":"what-comes-next-in-mahmoud-khalils-fight-against-deportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=3344","title":{"rendered":"What Comes Next in Mahmoud Khalil\u2019s Fight Against Deportation"},"content":{"rendered":"


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From a small courtroom<\/span> in a remote immigration jail in Jena, Louisiana, Judge Jamee Comans ruled on Friday that the government can deport Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil based solely on his advocacy for Palestine.<\/p>\n

Comans made her decision after weighing a single piece of evidence from the government, submitted in court two days earlier: a one-and-a-half-page letter <\/a>written by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which he stated that Khalil\u2019s presence in the U.S. would have \u201cpotentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s decision represents a major blow to Khalil and other protesters targeted by the Trump administration. But Khalil\u2019s attorneys promised the fight would continue in the courts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two major paths remain open to Khalil: one within the immigration court system, and the other in federal district court. Despite Friday\u2019s immigration court decision, Khalil\u2019s attorneys continue to argue in federal district court in New Jersey for his release on free speech grounds<\/a>. A resolution in the federal case could arrive in a matter of days or weeks. In immigration court, Khalil could apply for asylum, appeal the ruling before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and pursue further appeals within the U.S. circuit court \u2014 processes that could stretch for months or even years.<\/p>\n

Khalil and his attorneys seem committed to such a lengthy fight, in part because they know the outcome of his case carries major implications for other cases in which the Trump administration is targeting immigrants<\/a> with arrest and deportation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no stopping at Mahmoud Khalil, there\u2019s no stopping at just pro-Palestinian protesters,\u201d said Baher Azmy, a lead attorney in Khalil\u2019s legal team on Friday. \u201cNext, it could be LGBTQI activists under some pretext that that interferes with our foreign relations with Russia, racial justice activists, anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Path to Release\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Separate from Khalil\u2019s fight in the immigration court system is his petition for release, which is playing out in New Jersey\u2019s federal district court. There, Khalil\u2019s attorneys are arguing that his free speech rights are being violated and that he must be released.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That decision will come down to Judge Michael Farbiarz, who inherited the case from New York federal district court, where the petition was originally filed after Khalil\u2019s attorneys successfully fought the government\u2019s push<\/a> to send the case to Louisiana.<\/p>\n

Standing in the way of Farbiarz releasing Khalil is a separate jurisdictional battle. The Trump administration\u2019s attorneys are making the argument that the case belongs only in the immigration courts. Khalil\u2019s attorneys contend that his case is not just about his immigration status, but also about his First Amendment rights since the government is targeting his protest activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comans made clear during this week\u2019s hearings in immigration court that she cannot weigh in on issues that have to do with the First Amendment or the Constitution in Khalil\u2019s deportation proceedings. Khalil\u2019s attorneys said this admission should help bolster their argument that the case belongs in district court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Khalil\u2019s team continues to move with added urgency since his wife, Noor Abdalla, is pregnant with their first child and is due by the end of April. A supporter read a prepared statement by Abdalla at the Louisiana court on Friday, calling the ruling \u201ca devastating blow to our family.\u201d She also said the ruling was \u201can indictment of our country\u2019s immigration system and does not reflect truth, justice, or the will of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether Farbiarz orders Khalil\u2019s release, Khalil\u2019s fight against his deportation would continue separately in immigration court. If Khalil is released, however, it would dramatically change the timeline of his immigration court fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Immigration cases move much faster for individuals who are detained compared to those who are not in custody, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Counsel who has been watching Khalil\u2019s case closely.<\/p>\n

Reichlin-Melnick said that if Khalil remains jailed, his fight against deportation in the immigration system could end late this year or next. But if he were freed, the case could take up to three years before it reaches a conclusion, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could theoretically, if he is released, not even make it to the circuit courts before Trump finishes out his term,\u201d Reichlin-Melnick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within the Immigration System<\/h2>\n

As a part of Friday\u2019s ruling, Comans said Khalil has until April 26 to file for relief from deportation. His attorneys said they are considering filing for an asylum claim under the Convention Against Torture law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marc Van Der Hout, an attorney leading Khalil\u2019s immigration case, said the government\u2019s targeting of Khalil based on his protesting may end up bolstering his claim for asylum. Such a process would require further hearings.<\/p>\n

If Khalil is released, he would be able to file for asylum in immigration court in New York, where he lives. New York immigration courts have a backlog of 100,000 asylum claims, despite having only a few hundred judges, said Reichlin-Melnick. Getting to an asylum hearing, a process which he described as \u201ca mini trial\u201d with expert witnesses,\u00a0could take several years.<\/p>\n

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If the immigration court rejects Khalil\u2019s asylum claim, his attorneys said they plan to appeal the deportation ruling before the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is made up of immigration judges overseen by the Department of Justice. The appeal process before the board may play out over several months or several years, depending on whether Khalil is still detained or free, Reichlin-Melnick said.<\/p>\n

Before the board, Khalil and his attorneys would likely face stark opposition \u2014 case law would not be on his side. The last time the Board of Immigration Appeals saw a case related to the \u201cadverse foreign policy\u201d provision used in Khalil\u2019s case was in 1999. In that case, the board ruled that the secretary of state had the authority to deport someone under the same provision. But the circumstances were dramatically different. The board was ruling on the deportation of former Mexican attorney general Mario Ruiz Massieu<\/a>, who had fled Mexico and entered the U.S. on a temporary visa to avoid a slew of criminal charges, including money laundering, embezzlement, and torture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reichlin-Melnick also pointed out that Khalil, a legal permanent resident, would be able to hold on to his green card throughout the immigration court proceedings. It would only be revoked if the board rules against Khalil and upholds his deportability.<\/p>\n

A \u201cKangaroo Court\u201d<\/h2>\n

Van Der Hout and Khalil\u2019s legal team said they have little confidence in finding relief in the immigration court system. Comans denied separate motions asking to extend the hearing into next week and a request for more evidence from the Department of Homeland Security. In her ruling, she said she does not have the authority to override Rubio\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n

After Friday\u2019s hearing, attorneys for Khalil called the judge\u2019s ruling a \u201crubber stamp\u201d of the government\u2019s argument. Van Der Hout accused the judge of rushing the matter, giving Khalil\u2019s legal team less than two days to examine evidence from the government before the hearing. He referred to the process as a \u201ckangaroo court.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Khalil himself said after the ruling that the proceedings had lacked \u201cdue process rights and fundamental fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Van Der Hout further accused the Trump administration of \u201ccourt shopping,\u201d sending the case into a jurisdiction more favorable to the government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019re putting in their hand-picked people who will rule the way they want them to rule.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Amid the Trump administration\u2019s mass layoffs across the federal government, the administration fired<\/a> 20 immigration judges in February, including nine judges from the Board of Immigration Appeals. All of the nine judges fired from the board were appointed by the Biden administration. Recently-fired immigration judges called the moves by Attorney General Pam Bondi politically motivated<\/a>. The Bush administration carried out a similar tactic<\/a> in the early 2000s to achieve rulings favorable to the government in immigration court, which officials at the time had denied.<\/p>\n

Khalil\u2019s attorneys said Friday that such moves may also play a factor in his case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re putting in their hand-picked people who will rule the way they want them to rule,\u201d alleged Van Der Hout. \u201cThere\u2019s basically going to be no justice in the immigration court system based on what we\u2019re seeing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although his attorneys have yet to discuss legal strategy beyond an appeal to the immigration board, if the board rules against Khalil and upholds his deportation, his attorneys could continue their fight in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Reichlin-Melnick said. There, they would be able to pursue their argument that the government is violating Khalil\u2019s constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is by no means over yet \u2014 there\u2019s a lot that has still yet to happen in this case,\u201d Reichlin-Melnick said. \u201cThe decision that he can be deported is not a decision that he will be deported.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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From a small courtroom in a remote immigration jail in Jena, Louisiana, Judge Jamee Comans ruled on Friday that the government can deport Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil based solely on his advocacy for Palestine. Comans made her decision after weighing a single piece of evidence from the government, submitted in court two days earlier: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}