Palestinian former graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who is a green card holder married to an American citizen, was arrested by federal immigration agents in Columbia University housing Saturday, leading to questions about how a legal permanent resident could face deportation — and what it could mean for issues of free speech on college campuses.
Khalil was a public face of the pro-Palestinian protest movement at Columbia University last spring when large demonstrations against the war in Gaza swept college campuses around the country.
“Immigration law does allow the federal government to deport noncitizens, even people who are green card holders,” over certain offenses or certain kinds of behavior, said Adam Cox, a law professor and immigration expert at New York University.
“The big open question is why the government thinks it can deport him,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Khalil was arrested on March 9 “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” in coordination with the State Department. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement that the administration alleges that “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
“ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security,” she said in the statement.
The State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Khalil’s legal team hasn’t been made aware of any allegations of criminality or fraud, said Baher Azmy, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, a legal advocacy nonprofit organization involved in Khalil’s case. Trump and his administration didn’t provide evidence of their allegations against him or any other protesters.
Azmy called the arrest “a grotesque and chilling invocation of vague and unchecked national security power to target and retaliate on behalf of Palestinian human rights.”
Efforts are underway to return Khalil to New York from the immigration detention facility in Louisiana where he is being held, Azmy said. A federal judge in New York said Monday that Khalil is to remain in the United States for now “to preserve the court’s jurisdiction” as the court weighs the filing challenging his arrest and planned deportation.
The habeas corpus case is separate from a potential deportation proceeding Khalil could also face.
‘Deportation charges are not criminal charges’
The Trump administration is intensifying a crackdown on what it calls antisemitic activity on college campuses.
Khalil recently graduated with a master’s degree from Columbia University in New York City. Azmy said that his client has a green card and that his wife, who is eight months pregnant, is an American citizen.
The administration hasn’t provided details of the grounds for Khalil’s arrest and what charges, if any, he could face. If charges are based on his statements in support of Palestinians — which is unclear — Khalil is “covered by the First Amendment,” Cox said.
Deportation proceedings for a person with a green card are handled in the immigration court system, in which an immigration judge would ultimately decide whether someone can be deported, Cox said, meaning the Trump administration doesn’t get to “unilaterally decide that he should be deported and then deport him.”
A legal permanent resident could be deported after having been convicted of certain criminal offenses, Cox said, but “Congress’ immigration laws also can make you deportable for some other conduct that doesn’t itself constitute a crime,” and some of those grounds “are pretty broad.”
“Deportation charges are not criminal charges,” he said.
Cox said that if the State Department has “reasonable ground to believe that a noncitizen’s presence or activities in the country would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences, then that person is deportable, and so even a green card holder can be deportable on those grounds.”
Trump said on social media that “we know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”
“We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again,” he said.
An immigration court system that favors the government
When green card holders face immigration charges, they still retain certain rights during those proceedings, such as the right to be represented by a lawyer and “the right to a hearing before an immigration judge at which the charges have to be proved,” Cox said. “So there’s a long process, and there are legal rights involved.”
But the immigration court system “favors the government in all kinds of ways,” among them that there is no jury and that the government has to prove its case not beyond reasonable doubt but instead by the lower standard of “clear and convincing evidence.”
Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, said that even with the legal protections granted to green card holders, “it’s really difficult for people to navigate this process, and lawyers can certainly try to push back on the government’s arguments that someone is now deportable even though they have this particular benefit.”
“But there’s so much that depends on each individual’s case,” she said, referring to Khalil’s case, adding that even granting lawful permanent residency “is done at the discretion of the United States government. Someone can meet all of the criteria but still be denied.”
Experts said another factor is whether Khalil was arrested lawfully. Columbia said in a statement Monday that, consistent with its protocol, “law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including residential University buildings. Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community.” Columbia didn’t say whether ICE presented a warrant to the university before Khalil’s arrest.
While details about what Khalil will be charged with are pending, experts say any connection between his arrest and the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the Columbia campus could have a chilling effect on free speech.
Ron Kuby, a veteran New York civil rights lawyer, said that Khalil was protesting the treatment of Palestinians and that he has a First Amendment right to do so.
“This advocacy on behalf of the Palestinian people — an advocacy mirrored by many people — cannot be construed as offering material support for a terrorist organization,” Kuby said. “Whether you’re a green card holder or a citizen, you’re allowed to express your view that one country is right and another is wrong in an international conflict.”
He added, “The message is that ICE can come take you away at any moment.”
