Pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil must be deported, judge says
A Louisiana immigration judge on Sept. 12 ordered that pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil be deported to Algeria or Syria, ruling that he 'willfully misrepresented material fact(s)' on his green card application.
Pro-Hamas activism at Columbia and his refusal to condemn Hamas place Khalil at center of a legal fight over U.S. immigration policy.
A Louisiana immigration judge on Sept. 12 ordered that pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil be deported to Algeria or Syria, ruling that he “willfully misrepresented material fact(s)” on his green card application, according to Wednesday’s federal court filings.
The judge denied Khalil’s requests for a 12-day extension, a transfer of venue to New York, and a waiver against removal. Khalil now has 30 days from Sept. 12 to appeal the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Prosecutors cited a June 20 ruling that found Khalil had been intentionally “circumventing the immigration process and reducing the likelihood his applications could be denied.”
The court said Khalil omitted from his green card application that he had worked for the Syria office of the British Embassy in Beirut and that he was affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The agency has long drawn criticism from U.S. and Israeli officials.
During congressional testimony, Hillel Neuer, executive director of United Nations Watch, cited UNRWA staff spreading extremist rhetoric online.
“For example, we reported how in May 2022, UNRWA teacher Elham Mansour posted this on Facebook: ‘By Allah, anyone who can kill and slaughter any Zionist and Israeli criminal, and doesn’t do so, doesn’t deserve to live. Kill them and pursue them everywhere, they are the greatest enemy. All Israel deserves is death.’” Neuer added that UNRWA received $344 million in U.S. funding that year.
Campus Reform has reported on the responses to and developments of Kahlil’s pro-Hamas activism. In March, a New York City judge temporarily blocked Kahlil’s deportation. In April, a nationwide poll found that the majority of U.S. adults (54%) and nearly half of college students (40%) supported Kahlil’s deportation. In June, Kahlil returned to pro-Hamas activism during his release from ICE detention.
[RELATED: Mahmoud Khalil evades Hamas condemnation in CNN interview]
Most recently, in July, Kahlil refused to condemn Hamas in an interview with CNN, talking around the subject. “I am very clear with condemning all civilians,” Khalil continued. “It’s disingenuous to ask about Hamas.”
Khalil has long been active in pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas student groups.
In an interview with Ezra Klein, Kahlil said his engagement with the pro-Palestine movement on Columbia’s campus goes back before October 7th. Because “most of the students were too young to be able to communicate to the Columbia administration,” he became a President of the Palestine Working Group in order to galvanize the community.
Kahlil has also been a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which explains its mission as:
“We support freedom and justice for the Palestinian people, and for all people.” The statement continues to say that CUAD believes “collective safety” can only arise when “everyone” has access to a litany of resources, including “housing,” “healthcare,” and “freedom of movement.”
Nearly half of all criminals prosecuted in federal courts in 2018 were non-U.S. citizens (both legal and illegal). A study in Switzerland found that when the country allowed free movement from the European Union, a local population increase of just 1% drove up prices in single-family homes by 4.3% and in apartments by 5.9%. In 2023, England’s tax-funded universal healthcare had 7.6 million people on the waitlist for treatment.
These strains on public systems abroad echo in the United States, where they frame the legal battles surrounding controversial immigrants like Khalil.
In July, the Department of Homeland Security posted on X that “Mahmoud Khalil refuses to condemn Hamas because he IS a terrorist sympathizer not because DHS ‘painted’ him as one.” DHS went on to explain that it is a “privilege” to hold a United States green card.
“The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property,” the post concluded.
Looking to the future, Khalil’s attorneys said they plan to appeal the ruling and pointed out that a federal district court has separately barred the government from immediately deporting or detaining him while his broader case proceeds.
Khalil’s case stands as a high-profile example of the Trump administration’s effort to revoke visas and deport foreign students linked to groups or activities that promote or incite violence.
Campus Reform has reached out to Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
