NEW YORK — Dealing with a deadline from an immigration decide to show over proof for its tried deportation of Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal authorities has as an alternative submitted a quick memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel noncitizens whose presence within the nation damages U.S. international coverage pursuits.
The 2-page memo, which was obtained by The Related Press, doesn’t allege any legal conduct by Khalil, a authorized everlasting U.S. resident and graduate scholar who served as spokesperson for campus activists final yr throughout massive demonstrations towards Israel’s remedy of Palestinians and the conflict in Gaza.
Fairly, Rubio wrote Khalil could possibly be expelled for his beliefs.
He mentioned that whereas Khalil’s actions have been “otherwise lawful,” letting him stay within the nation would undermine “U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”
“Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote within the undated memo.
The submission was filed Wednesday after Choose Jamee Comans ordered the federal government to supply its proof towards Khalil forward of a listening to Friday on whether or not it will probably proceed detaining him throughout immigration proceedings.
Attorneys for Khalil mentioned the memo proved the Trump administration was “targeting Mahmoud’s free speech rights about Palestine.”
“After a month of hiding the ball since Mahmoud’s late-night unjust arrest in New York and taking him away to a remote detention center in Louisiana, immigration authorities have finally admitted that they have no case whatsoever against him,” the attorneys, Marc Van Der Hout and Johnny Sinodis, mentioned in a joint assertion.
“There is not a single shred of proof that Mahmoud’s presence in America poses any threat,” they added.
Khalil, 30, was arrested March 8 in New York and brought to a detention middle in Louisiana. He’s a Palestinian by ethnicity who was born in Syria. Khalil not too long ago completed his coursework for a grasp’s diploma at Columbia’s college of worldwide affairs. He’s married to an American citizen who is because of give start this month.
Khalil has adamantly rejected allegations of antisemitism, accusing the Trump administration in a letter despatched from jail final month of “targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent.”
“Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances,” he added, “I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”
Although Rubio’s memo references further paperwork, together with a “subject profile of Mahmoud Khalil” and letter from the Division Homeland Safety, the federal government didn’t submit these paperwork to the immigration courtroom, in line with Khalil’s legal professionals.
The memo additionally requires the deportation of a second lawful everlasting resident, whose title is redacted within the submitting.
The Trump administration has pulled billions of {dollars} in authorities funding from universities and their affiliated hospital techniques in latest weeks as a part of what it says is a marketing campaign towards antisemitism on school campuses, however which critics say is a crackdown on free speech. To get the cash again, the administration has been telling universities to punish protesters and make different adjustments.
The U.S. authorities has additionally been revoking the visas of worldwide college students who criticized Israel or accused it of mistreating Palestinians.
On the time of Khalil’s arrest, a spokesperson for the Division of Homeland Safety, Tricia McLaughlin, accused the activist of main actions “aligned to Hamas,” referring to the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
However the authorities has not produced any proof linking Khalil to Hamas, and made no reference to the group of their most up-to-date submitting.
