The Trump administration presented new accusations against Mahmoud Khalil, the graduate student of Columbia University detained due to his pro-palestinian activism on the campus, while trying to dismiss his claims of rape of the first amendment as a “red herring.”
In a presentation on Sunday, the Department of Justice said that Khalil, who is the holder of the green card, retained the membership in certain organizations and did not reveal his employment in the Syrian office at the British embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, in his application for permanent residence.
Khalil, originally from Syria and citizen of Algeria, entered the United States into a student visa in December 2022 and was adjusted to the State of Legal Permanent Resident in November 2024.
He supposedly did not reveal that he was a member of the United Nations Relations and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) as a political officer or that it was part of the disinvestment of apartheid of the University of Columbia when he requested to become a permanent resident in 2024, according to a document of the National Security Department of March 17, to which the Government made references in its presentation.
The Administration said that Khalil also did not reveal his employment as a program manager for Syria’s office at the British Embassy in Beirut after 2022, according to the document, which detailed additional reasons for the deportation of Khalil. It is not clear immediately when or if Khalil stopped working at the embassy.
According to American citizenship and immigration services, intentional fraud and misrepresentation are considered a permanent residence applicant “misrepresents material facts” to “hide group memberships” that would make them inelegable for the state of permanent residence.
“It is the law of black letters that misrepresents in this context are not protected speeches,” says the government that presents the presentation. “Therefore, the accusations of Khalil’s first amendment are a red sand, and there is an independent base to justify sufficient elimination to execute Khalil’s constitutional claim here.”
However, the government will have to show the immigration judge that Khalil intentionally did not reveal that information and if that dissemination would have affected its eligibility for permanent residence.
Baher Azmy, a Khalil lawyer, told NBC News: “These late accusations after the fact, such as silly, mainly that the government must know the supposed reasons for ‘foreign policy’ for Mahmoud’s removal are absurd and innstitutional.”
Azmy said that the new statements of the government “cannot change the obvious fact that the government has admitted: it is being punished in the most autocratic way for its constitutionally protected discourse.”
Khalil was arrested for the application of immigration and customs and national security research in his apartment at Columbia University on March 8. It was arrested in New York, briefly transported to an installation in New Jersey and transported to an ice installation in Jena, Louisiana on March 10.
Khalil had been initially arrested under a provision rarely used in the Immigration Law, where the Secretary of State has the authority to deport someone if it is determined that the person “would have serious adverse consequences of foreign policy for the United States.”
The National Security Department said that Khalil “directed activities aligned with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization”, in its activism at Columbia University. However, his lawyers deny the accusations, saying that Khalil was attacked for freedom of expression that supported the Palestinian cause.
Khalil filed a lawsuit, also known as habeas request, protesting his arrest in New York. Demand cited a violation of its right to due process and the right of the first amendment to freedom of expression. Last week, a New York judge ordered Habeas’s request to continue in New Jersey because Khalil’s lawyers presented the case while being detained there.
The federal judge of New York, Jesse Furman, also prohibited his deportation in the midst of the lawsuit, saying that Khalil’s statements of rapid and fifth amendment justify a “careful judicial review.”
The presentation of the Trump administration in the New Jersey district argued that the State lacked jurisdiction to listen to the case of habeas.
He emphasized the original argument of the administration for Khalil’s arrest and tried to avoid his argument that he was attacked for freedom of expression by pointing out his alleged lack of revelations in his application for permanent residence.
Khalil, who does not face publicly known criminal charges, also has a separate deportation case in Louisiana, where he is being arrested.
Marc van der Hout, Khalil’s lawyer in his deportation procedures, told NBC News on Friday that “this is not a typical and outrageous case.”
“It is almost unprecedented to invoke a provision like this,” said Van der Hout on the provision of the immigration law initially cited by the Administration. “The government clearly chases it because they do not like what it says about what is happening in the Middle East and that is the final result. We are going to fight against this strongly.”
After the Israel-Ahamas War, Columbia University became the avant-garde of student protests in support of the Palestinian people.
The Columbia Student Workers’ Union Work plans to celebrate an informative picket at 1 PM on Monday to demand protection for international student workers, the restoration of reduced funds and “restoration of all disciplined students for pro-processing activism and speech.” The Faculty of Columbia will also have a “vigil to defend democracy” at noon on Monday.
