March 12 (UPI) — Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil will remain in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana after his first court hearing to fight a potential deportation by the Trump administration.
Federal authorities took Khalil, a Columbia University student, into custody Saturday under questionable pretenses at his campus apartment and promptly sent him to a detention center in Jena, La.
On Wednesday, DOJ attorney Brandon Waterman told a court that Khalil, 30, is not in immediate danger of deportation while the immigration proceedings take place. Federal Judge Jesse Furman ordered that Khalil be granted at least one phone call Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for future court appearances after his lawyers expressed dissatisfaction over access to their client.
“We literally have not been able to confer with our client once since he was taken off the streets of New York City,” Ramzi Kassem, an attorney for Khalil, said outside after court let out.
Khalil, married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, is a green card and student visa holder but his attorney Amy Greer said the U.S. State Department had been working to revoke both. In December, he graduated with a masters degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
“He was taken by U.S. government agents in retaliation, essentially, for exercising his First Amendment rights, for speaking up in defense of Palestinians in Gaza and beyond, for being critical of the US government and of the Israeli government,” added Kassem.
His deportation was temporarily stopped Monday by a federal judge ahead of Wednesday’s hearing.
Khalil, a Palestinian refugee raised in Syria, was the lead student negotiator of an encampment at the Manhattan campus in 2024 when Columbia was the center of nationwide student protests held against Israel’s war in Gaza, which ultimately lead to the resignation of Columbia president Nemat “Minouche” Shafik after months of protests that disrupted campus.
On Friday, the Trump administration announced it was revoking $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, alleging it failed to fight anti-Semitism on its campus. Columbia officials confirmed Sunday that there have been reports of ICE around its grounds and stated the university “has and will continue to follow the law.”
“We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted Sunday on Elon Musk’s X.
In a social media post Monday, Trump said that Khalil’s arrest was the “first arrest of many to come” and that his administration will “find, apprehend, and deport” those considered “terrorist sympathizers.”
Although Khalil has been accused of making supportive statements for Hamas, he has not been publicly accused of providing material backing to the Iran-backed terror syndicate. His lawyers, meanwhile, say he’s being punished for exercising his protected speech.
Khalil’s attorneys filed a petition Saturday for a writ of habeas corpus that alleges his arrest and ICE detention, based on Khalil’s perceived free speech and activism, violates the Due Process Clause and the First Amendment.
The White House, however, has yet to produce any evidence of a crime.
“It is far less common for ICE to allege that political views or speech renders a green card holder deportable under the terrorism grounds as that raises significant First Amendment concerns,” John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE, stated Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the ACLU and NYCLU have since joined his legal team.