Effort To Deport Columbia Grad Mahmoud Khalil 'Likely' Unconstitutional, Judge Says

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — A federal judge issued an opinion Wednesday saying the Trump administration's attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil — the Columbia University graduate detained on campus by immigration officials back in March — is "likely" unconstitutional.

Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident and graduate student who served as spokesperson for campus activists last year during large demonstrations against Israel's treatment of Palestinians and the war in Gaza, was detained on March 8 in the lobby of his campus-owned apartment and has been held in detention in Jena, Louisiana.

To target Khalil, the Trump administration used a provision of the 1953 Immigration and Nationality Act to arrest and detain noncitizens who engage in protest that could harm the country's international relations, in a memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

In Wednesday's opinion, New Jersey Judge Michael E. Farbiarz said the use of the provision, called Section 1227, was an unprecedented and likely unconstitutional move.

“The issue now before the Court has been this: does the Constitution allow the Secretary of State to use Section 1227, as applied through the determination, to try to remove the Petitioner from the United States? The Court’s answer: likely not,” Farbiarz wrote.

When Khalil was detained, he was first brought to a detention center in New Jersey before being transferred to Louisiana. Since then, he has been in and out of court while missing the birth of his son in New York.

"The district court held what we already knew: Secretary Rubio's weaponization of immigration law to punish Mahmoud and others like him is likely unconstitutional," Khalil's legal team said in response to Farbiarz's opinion.

Khalil is represented by lawyers from Dratel & Lewis, the Center for Constitutional Rights, CLEAR, Van Der Hout LLP, Washington Square Legal Services, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of New Jersey, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Every day Mahmoud spends languishing in an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, is an affront to justice, and we won't stop working until he is free," his lawyers said in a joint statement.

In the opinion, Farbiarz said he would review additional evidence in the coming days as he continues to consider Khalil’s release.

See Farbiarz's 106-page opinion here.

For questions and tips, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.

See related coverage:

• ICE Detains Pro-Palestinian Activist At Columbia University
• Palestinian Student Arrested After NYC Protest Can Be Deported, Judge Says
• Trump Pulls $400M From Columbia University Over 'Illegal Protests'