Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Charged on Antisemitic Protests and Disruptive Activities Revisited

The two-page letter, which was submitted in an immigration court filing on Wednesday and published Thursday with redactions by Khalil’s legal team, alleges that Mahmoud Khalil participated in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities,” and that his continuing presence in the U.S. would have “potentially serious adverse foreign consequences, and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”

Lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security released their evidence against a student from Columbia University after an immigration judge in Louisiana ordered them to do so.

The 30-year-old is trying to get deported because of his involvement in last year’s campus protests. Judge Jamee Comans said she will rule on Friday whether Khalil can be deported, or whether he must be freed.

Khalid’s legal case is proceeding on multiple tracks. While an immigration judge considers the evidence against him, Khalid’s lawyers are also challenging his March 8 detention in federal court in New Jersey.

Rubio relied on a rarely-used statute from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that authorizes the Secretary of State to personally order the deportation of people whose presence in the U.S. he believes “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

But after the Cold War ended, lawmakers modified the law in 1990 to protect “beliefs, statements, or associations would be lawful within the United States,” and raised the standard for deportation to cases in which the foreigner’s presence in the U.S. would “compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest.”

Free speech advocates argue the administration is violating the Constitution by targeting immigrants for their activism and their political beliefs. Several students and scholars, including Khalil, have challenged their arrests on constitutional grounds.

Judge Jamee Comans did not have the authority to question the determination that was made in the hearing Friday.

Pinto said that despite the differences, the signers believed in the legality of the case of Suri’s detention. They agree, Pinto said, that the arrest of Suri, Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, along with the revocation of student and work visas of many others — violates civil liberties, and creates a climate of fear.

To Emma Pinto, who is a first year law student at Georgetown University, this reinforces the antisemitic notion that Jews have too much power in society.

More than 130 Jewish students, staff and alumni from Georgetown University have signed a public letter opposing the arrest and detention of researcher Badar Khan Suri, saying that President Trump’s policies make Jews on campus less safe.

“To justify this incursion by the federal government to come in and snatch individuals up from their communities…this does nothing for our safety,” said Jonathan Mendoza, a student in the Master’s in Democracy & Governance program who signed the public letter.

It also came after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decided to screen social media for evidence of antisemitic activity.

NPR reached out to the administration for comment on the letter’s assertion — that the prominent detentions and deportation threats weaponize antisemitism. “It’s absurd to think that revoking visas of individuals who support terrorists, harass Jews, or do the bidding of organizations that relish the killing of Americans and Jews is making Jewish students less safe,” said McLaughlin from the Department of Homeland Security.

Suri’s lawyers deny that he has spread propaganda, and accuse the Trump administration of retaliating against Suri and his wife for their support for Palestinians and ties to Gaza.

Federal agents wearing masks arrested a man who was also an Indian national after they had stopped to eat at an iftar in March. Department of Homeland Security officials accuse him of spreading Hamas propaganda.

“You might find all protest for Palestine antisemitic,” said Pinto. You agree that sowing fear in a community is not the way to go.