ICE brokers arrested Mahmoud Khalil with no warrant, Trump administration confirms
The Trump administration conceded on Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers didn’t have a warrant once they detained Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil in March, acknowledging it was “a warrantless arrest.”
Khalil’s attorneys are asking an immigration choose in Louisiana, the place their shopper has been detained by ICE for weeks, to terminate his deportation case based mostly on the truth that he was arrested with no warrant.
The Division of Homeland Safety, which oversees ICE, admitted in a courtroom submitting that immigration brokers usually want warrants earlier than arresting people. But it surely argued that Khalil was arrested with no warrant resulting from “exigent circumstances,” alleging that brokers believed the Columbia activist would “escape earlier than they may acquire a warrant.”
Khalil’s attorneys denied that he had any plans to flee, saying in their very own courtroom submitting that their shopper “absolutely complied” with the ICE brokers’ calls for.
“Tellingly, no agent current on the scene has ever submitted sworn or unsworn testimony that Mr. Khalil tried to flee or in any other case posed a flight threat,” Khalil’s attorneys wrote in a courtroom doc.
A vocal member of the protests at Columbia College final 12 months over the battle in Gaza, Khalil is a Syrian-born immigrant with authorized U.S. everlasting residency — often known as a inexperienced card. He was arrested in early March by ICE, exterior of his New York Metropolis house, the place he lived together with his U.S. citizen spouse, who was pregnant on the time.
Khalil was not capable of witness the delivery of his son earlier this week, after ICE denied a request for him to be quickly launched.
One in every of a number of foreign-born college students arrested by ICE in latest months, Khalil has change into some of the high-profile faces of the Trump administration’s efforts to go after these on faculty campuses who’ve participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
The Trump administration has argued its efforts are designed to curb anti-semitism and pro-Hamas views at universities, however civil rights teams have accused the federal government of punishing college students purely for his or her political views, in violation of the First Modification.
Whereas it has not accused Khalil of any prison wrongdoing, the Trump administration has cited two authorized grounds to argue the Columbia College activist ought to nonetheless be deported from the U.S.
The administration has accused Khalil of committing immigration fraud by withholding sure data on his inexperienced card utility and argued he is additionally deportable resulting from a willpower by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that his presence and actions pose “adversarial international coverage penalties” for the U.S. Khalil’s attorneys have refuted each accusations.
Earlier this month, an immigration choose in Louisiana dominated the administration might proceed its bid to deport Khalil, saying she couldn’t second-guess Rubio’s willpower, which cites a not often used legislation. She held in abeyance the immigration fraud accusation.
This week, Khalil formally submitted an utility in immigration courtroom to request asylum and withholding of removing, one other authorized safety from deportation, in keeping with his attorneys.
That immigration courtroom case in Louisiana is progressing alongside a lawsuit in federal district courtroom in New Jersey difficult the legality of Khalil’s detention. Attorneys in that case have requested the federal choose overseeing it to order Khalil’s launch, revoke Rubio’s willpower and bar the federal government from concentrating on noncitizens “who interact in constitutionally protected expressive exercise in the US in help of Palestinian rights or crucial of Israel.”
