The Trump administration filed new allegations against Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student detained due to his pro-Palestinian activism on campus, while trying to dismiss his First Amendment violation claims as a “red herring.”
In a filing Sunday, the Justice Department said Khalil, who is a green card holder, withheld membership in certain organizations and failed to disclose his employment at the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, in his permanent residency application.
Khalil, a native of Syria and citizen of Algeria, entered the U.S. on a student visa in December 2022 and was adjusted to lawful permanent resident status in November 2024.
He allegedly did not disclose that he was a member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) as a political officer or that he was part of Columbia University Apartheid Divest when he applied to become a permanent resident in 2024, according to a Department of Homeland Security March 17 document, which the government referenced in its filing.
The administration claimed that Khalil also failed to disclose his employment as a program manager by the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut after 2022, according to the document, which detailed additional grounds for Khalil’s deportation. It is not immediately clear when or if Khalil stopped working at the embassy.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, it is considered fraud and willful misrepresentation if a permanent residency applicant “misrepresents material facts” to “conceal group memberships” that would make them ineligible for permanent residency status.
“It is black-letter law that misrepresentations in this context are not protected speech,” the government filing states. “Thus, Khalil’s First Amendment allegations are a red herring, and there is an independent basis to justify removal sufficient to foreclose Khalil’s constitutional claim here.”
However, the government will have to prove to the immigration judge that Khalil willfully failed to disclose that information, and whether that disclosure would have impacted his eligibility for permanent residency.
Baher Azmy, an attorney for Khalil, told NBC News: “These late-breaking, after-the-fact allegations, silly as they are, primarily show that the government must know the supposed ‘foreign policy’ grounds for Mahmoud’s removal are absurd and unconstitutional.”
Azmy said the government’s new claims “cannot change the obvious fact the government has admitted — he is being punished in the most autocratic way for his constitutionally protected speech.”
Khalil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations at his Columbia University apartment on March 8. He was arrested in New York, transported briefly to a facility in New Jersey, and transported to an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana on March 10.
Khalil had been initially arrested under a rarely used provision in immigration law, where the Secretary of State has the authority to deport someone if it’s determined the person “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
The Department of Homeland Security has said Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” in his activism at Columbia University. However, his attorneys deny the allegations, saying Khalil was targeted for free speech supporting the Palestinian cause.
Khalil filed a lawsuit, also known as a habeas petition, protesting his detention in New York. The lawsuit cited a violation of his right to due process and the First Amendment right to free speech. Last week, a New York judge ordered the habeas petition to continue in New Jersey because Khalil’s attorneys filed the case while he was detained there.
New York federal Judge Jesse Furman also barred his deportation amid the lawsuit, saying Khalil’s claims of First and Fifth Amendment violations warrant “careful judicial review.”
The Trump administration’s Sunday filing in the district of New Jersey argued that the state lacked jurisdiction to hear the habeas case.
It further emphasized the administration’s original argument for Khalil’s arrest and sought to bypass his argument that he was targeted for free speech by pointing to his alleged lack of disclosures in his permanent residency application.
Khalil, who is not facing any publicly known criminal charges, also has a separate deportation case in Louisiana, where he’s being detained.
Marc Van Der Hout, Khalil’s attorney in his deportation proceedings, told NBC News on Friday that “this is not a typical case and it’s outrageous.”
“It’s almost unprecedented to invoke a provision like this,” Van Der Hout said on the immigration law provision initially cited by the administration. “The government is clearly going after him because they don’t like what he says about what’s going on in the Middle East and that’s the bottom line. We’re going to fight this strongly.”
Following the Israel-Hamas war, Columbia University became the forefront of student protests in support of the Palestinian people.
The Student Workers of Columbia labor union plans to hold an informational picket at 1 p.m. on Monday to demand protection for international student workers, the restoration of slashed funding, and “reinstatement of all students disciplined for pro-Palestine activism and speech.” Columbia faculty will also hold a “Vigil to Defend Democracy” at noon on Monday.
