The student at Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil, should be protected from deportation, which could put their lives at risk, their lawyers argued on Thursday.
Before a critical judicial hearing before an immigration judge in Louisiana who focused on Si Khalil, he had the right to relieve deportation, even through Asylum, Khalil met and kept his newborn son for the first time. The Trump administration had tried to separate both of a Plexiglass barrier.
“His life is at stake,” Khalil’s lawyer said Marc van der Hout.
Khalil testified to the judge for more than two hours on Thursday, describing his life from his childhood and trip to Columbia University to the activism of his campus, where it was a prominent voice pro-palestine during last year’s demonstrations.
“I spent a good moment of my life fleeing from damage and advocating the marginalized. That is what endangered me,” he said. “That is what I was protesting, that is what I will continue protesting. This is what everyone should protest.”
He also said that his own safety and that of his family would be in danger if they were eliminated from the United States.
Khalil said returning to Syria “would be suicide.”
“I have been the target of my political beliefs,” he said. “The president labeled me as a terrorist sympathizer.”
When asked what he was afraid if he were deported, said Khalil, kidnapping, murder, torture or guidance of his family.
He said he is more concerned about his family, because if he were deported, they would not want them to come with him for fear of his safety.
“I only spent an hour in a month of my son’s life, and that was this morning,” he said.
Khalil was subject to deportation by the Trump administration after he helped organize pro-palestinian demonstrations on the Columbia campus. He has been arrested in an installation in the rural area of Jena, Louisiana, since March.
Khalil is an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent; He was born in a field of Palestinian refugees in Syria. He was the head of the green card when he was arrested. Trump administration officials invoked a provision rarely used in the Immigration Law saying that the Secretary of State has the authority to deport someone who is determined to have “consequences of serious adverse foreign policy for the United States.”
Immigration judge Jamee Comans requested that Thursday’s testimony focuses on Khalil’s asylum application.
“All I want to hear is why you can’t go to Syria or Algeria,” he said during the audience.
His lawyers called multiple expert witnesses in the Middle East and North Africa to testify that Khalil could be attacked by foreign governments, suffer persecution or torture if he were deported to Algeria or Syria.
If the judge denies Khalil’s relief requests and reaffirms that it is removable of the United States, Khalil’s legal team can appeal.
Before Thursday’s hearing, Khalil’s lawyers presented hundreds of pages of new tests that opposed their deportation, which NBC News has reviewed.
The evidence included several expert statements from organizations and academics who claim that Khalil’s life would be in danger if he were deported to Algeria or Syria.
In a letter from Amnesty International, the organization said that “it opposes all the forced returns of Syrian citizens and the ancient usual residents of Syria, including the Palestinians, to any part of Syria,” add the situation there “remains incredibly volatile.”
In another letter, Muriam Haleh Davis, Algerian historian and an associated professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said that Khalil would also be at risk in Algeria, writing that “Israel has a well-known story of murdering pro-Palestinian intellectuals and politicians in North Africa.”
“Mr. Khalil, due to his visibility and false accusations of his participation in Hamas, could well be a goal,” Davis said.
Before the audience, Khalil was allowed to meet and sustain his one -month -old son, for the first time and meet with his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, for the first time since he was arrested since his apartment lobby in New York City.
Initially, Trump administration officials rejected Khalil’s request for a “contact visit”, citing a “contactless” visits policy at the Louisiana Central ICE processing center and security concerns.
After the negotiations, the officials agreed a “contact visit,” said Khalil’s legal team.
Khalil’s wife and newborn were also in the courtroom later on Thursday. The baby occasionally worried, and Khalil turned around and smiled at his wife and son.
“Khalil had a contact visit with his wife and son this morning before his hearing in court. But we offer him even more: use the CBP Home application to self -destitute,” said the assistant secretary of the department of Patria, Tricia McLaughlin, on Thursday night. “The United States is offering illegal foreigners $ 1,000 each and a free flight to defend now, that Kahlil can take advantage of their departure through CBP Home.”
Khalil has not been accused of criminal conduct, but the Trump administration has argued that he has the authority to deport it because “he directed activities aligned with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization”, a claim that Khalil and his legal team deny.
NBC News reviewed more than 100 pages of documents that the federal government presented in its effort to deport Khalil, which showed that the government seemed to depend on not verified tabloid items on it.
In April, Comans affirmed the Trump administration argument that Khalil’s beliefs threaten national security and justify their deportation.
Khalil’s lawyers asked the judge on Thursday to finish immigration procedures, arguing that he was arrested without a court order. However, the judge denied the motion.
After hours of testimony, the judge instructed both parties to present a written closure arguments before June 2. From now on, Khalil will remain in Louisiana.
