U.S. alleges Columbia pupil lined up his work for UNRWA

A decide has ordered Mr. Khalil to not be deported whereas his lawsuit difficult his detention, generally known as a habeas petition, is heard in one other federal court docket. File
| Picture Credit score: Reuters

The U.S. Authorities has alleged that Columbia College pupil and pro-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil withheld that he labored for a United Nations Palestinian aid company in his visa utility, saying that must be grounds for deportation.

The U.N. company generally known as UNRWA offers meals and healthcare to Palestinian refugees and has turn out to be a flashpoint within the Israeli struggle in Gaza. Israel contends that 12 UNRWA staff had been concerned in Hamas’ assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, main the U.S. to halt funding of the group.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on March 8 detained Mr. Khalil, a outstanding determine within the pro-Palestinian campus protests that rocked the New York Metropolis campus final 12 months and despatched him to Louisiana in an try and take away him from the nation.

The case has drawn consideration as a check of free speech rights, with supporters of Mr. Khalil saying he was focused for publicly disagreeing with U.S. coverage on Israel and its occupation of Gaza. Mr. Khalil has known as himself a political prisoner.

The U.S. alleges Mr. Khalil’s presence or actions within the nation would have severe overseas coverage penalties.

A decide has ordered Mr. Khalil to not be deported whereas his lawsuit difficult his detention, generally known as a habeas petition, is heard in one other federal court docket.

Mr. Khalil, a local of Syria and citizen of Algeria, entered the U.S. on a pupil visa in 2022 and later filed to turn out to be a everlasting resident in 2024.

In a court docket transient dated Sunday (March 23, 2025), the U.S. Authorities outlined its arguments for preserving Mr. Khalil in custody whereas his elimination proceedings proceed, arguing first that the U.S. District Court docket in New Jersey, the place the habeas case is being heard, lacked jurisdiction.

The transient additionally says Mr. Khalil “withheld membership in sure organisations” which must be grounds for his deportation.

It references a March 17 doc in his deportation case that knowledgeable Mr. Khalil he may very well be eliminated as a result of he did not disclose that he was a political officer of UNRWA in 2023.

The U.N. stated in August an investigation discovered 9 of the company’s 32,000 employees members could have been concerned within the October 7 assaults.

The U.S. court docket discover additionally accuses Mr. Khalil of leaving off his visa utility that he labored for the Syria workplace within the British embassy in Beirut and that he was a member of the group Columbia College Apartheid Divest.

Attorneys for Mr. Khalil didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

One lawyer, Ramie Kassem, a co-director of the authorized clinic CLEAR, was quoted within the New York Instances as saying the brand new deportation grounds had been “patently weak and pretextual.”

“That the Authorities scrambled so as to add them on the eleventh hour solely highlights how its motivation from the beginning was to retaliate towards Mr. Khalil for his protected speech in help of Palestinian rights and lives,” Kassem stated, based on the Instances.