An immigration judge has ordered Mahmoud Khalil be deported to Algeria or Syria, alleging he omitted information from his green card application, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student whose case has been at the center of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and on vocal opponents of Israel’s war in Gaza, was detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in March and released in June.
Immigration judge Jamee Comans, based out of Jena, Louisiana, on Friday denied Khalil’s motion for a waiver preventing his removal from the U.S., due to alleged misrepresentations made in an application for an adjustment of status.
Khalil’s attorneys said they have 30 days from the Friday order to appeal the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
In that order, Comee cited that on June 20, the court issued a written decision denying Khalil’s application for asylum and ordered he be removed to Algeria and Syria.
She doubled down on that prior ruling, saying the court found Kahlil’s “lack of candor on his I-485 form was not an oversight by an uninformed, uneducated applicant.” The form is an application to register permanent residence or adjust status.
“Rather, this Court finds that Respondent willfully misrepresented material fact(s) for the sole purpose of circumventing the immigration process and reducing the likelihood his applications could be denied. This Court cannot and will not condone such an action by granting a discretionary waiver,” Comee said.
In a statement Khalil said, “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 colors once again.”
“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,” he continued. “Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation.”