By Brooke Anderson

 

NEW YORK, 19 Sept. - (ANA) - Following an immigration judge's decision to deport Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University Palestinian activist is working to challenge the decision.

 

On Wednesday, Khalil's legal team submitted a letter to challenge a decision on 12 September by Jamee Comans, an immigration judge in Louisiana.

 

This brings the Palestinian activist and US permanent resident closer to being deported to Syria or Algeria, where he had lived and has citizenship, respectively.

 

He is being accused of misrepresenting information in his green card application over his work at the British embassy in Beirut and his affiliations with UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) and the student BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, though he and his supporters say he is being targeted for his pro-Palestinian activism.

 

"It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech. Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colours once again," said Mahmoud Khalil in a public statement.

 

"When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide. Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people's liberation," he continued.

 

As the case moves forward, Khalil will remain in the US—in line with an immigration judge's earlier decision to allow him to stay in the US. Khalil and his legal team have 30 days from 12 September to make their appeal.

 

So far, Khalil's legal team have issued a letter to New Jersey-based district judge Michael Farbiarz, saying a decision was made without a hearing and with irregularities. They also not how unusual it is for a permanent resident to face such removal proceedings.

 

"The courts are being weaponised to persecute Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the US, for exercising his 1st Amendment rights. Our taxpayers' dollars are paying for the erosion of our civil and Constitutional rights. Tell us again how the Trump Administration is not an authoritarian regime," Congresswoman Delia Ramirez of Illinois wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.

 

"The Trump administration will stop at nothing to try to silence Mr. Khalil, including by denying him, his family, and his supporters the right to testify in immigration court, in complete contravention of the US Constitution," said Johnny Sinodis, partner at Van Der Hout LLP, part of Khalil's legal team.

 

"We have witnessed a constant lack of humanity and allegiance to the law throughout proceedings in this farcical Louisiana immigration court, and the immigration judge's September 12 decision is just the most recent example of what occurs when the system requires an arbiter that is anything but neutral to do the administration's bidding," he said.

 

"As with other illegal efforts by the government, this too will be challenged and overcome," Sinodis concluded.   - (ANA) - 

 

AB/ANA/19 September 2025 - - -