Mahmoud Khalil: US judge rules pro-Palestine student protester can be deported

An immigration judge in Louisiana ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump's administration can proceed with efforts to deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, whom authorities consider a national security risk.

Judge Jamee E Comans concluded after a hearing that the government had sufficiently demonstrated Mr Khalil’s presence in the US could have “potentially serious foreign policy consequences”, meeting the legal threshold for deportation.

“The government has established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable,” the judge said.

The Central Louisiana ICE Processing Centre in Jena, where Mahmoud Khalil is detained. Reuters

Mr Khalil’s lawyers are expected to appeal against the decision. Meanwhile, a federal judge in New Jersey has temporarily blocked the campaigner's removal from the country.

A prominent face of the university campus protest movement that erupted in response to the war in Gaza, Mr Khalil, a US permanent resident, was arrested and taken to an immigration detention centre last month. Several other foreign student protesters have been similarly targeted.

In a letter to the court, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the activism of Mr Khalil could damage Washington’s foreign policy interests.

However, Mr Rubio stopped short of formally alleging that Mr Khalil has ties to Hamas, as officials have told journalists.

The undated letter instead cited Mr Khalil’s “participation and roles” in what it called “anti-Semitic protests and disruptive activities”, which it said fostered a “hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States”. It made no reference to any alleged crime.

The arrest of Mr Khalil, a US permanent resident and graduate of Columbia University, has been condemned by rights groups as an assault on free speech and due process. More than 100 Democratic legislators from the US House of Representatives questioned the legality of his detention in a letter to the administration of President Donald Trump.