On Friday, April 11, immigration Judge Jamee Comans ruled that former Columbia graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported on the grounds that he threatens foreign policy. Despite the setback caused by today’s ruling, Khalil’s legal team is continuing in their pursuit of other means to block his deportation. Yet, the judge’s ruling marks a significant victory for the Trump administration which has, over the last month, sharpened its attacks on international students and, through it, on universities, immigrants rights and the right to free speech.
His trial escalated rapidly when on April 8, Judge Jamee Comans gave the Trump administration 24 hours to provide evidence to justify Khalil’s deportation. After the 24-hour deadline, Secretary of State Marco Rubio submitted a filing reifying the government’s position that, even if Khalil hadn’t done anything illegal, it should have the authority to deport Khalil due to his speech and beliefs. Rubio argued that Khalil’s continued presence would harm “U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States,” despite in the same memo also saying that Khalil’s activities would be “otherwise lawful.” Judge Comans claimed that she has no authority to question Rubio’s determination, upholding a rarely used statute from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that authorized the Secretary of State to personally order the deportation of people whose presence would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
Comans has given Khalil and his legal team until April 23 to file applications to stop his deportation. If they do not, she will file an order of removal to Algeria, where Khalil is a citizen, or to Syria, where he was born. Khalil’s legal team plans to appeal the Louisiana decision in addition to fighting for his release in a federal habeas corpus case in New Jersey. His lawyers are arguing that Khalil is being detained illegally, and are asking for bail and a preliminary injunction to release him back to his family.
It is clear that the Trump administration will continue its authoritarian attacks on international students, immigrants, pro-Palestine activists, and the labor movement to discipline and repress us into submission. Indeed, Khalil’s case has been the point of the spear to attack democratic rights more broadly. Since Khalil was taken into detention on March 8, the Trump administration has expanded its attacks from those who stood in solidarity with Palestine — like students such as Yunseo Chung, Rumeysa Ozturk, Badar Khan Suri, and Momodou Taal — to now using a myriad of excuses, including roommate disputes and traffic violations, to target and deport immigrant students. Indeed, this week, the Trump administration announced that it had revoked the visas of over 400 immigrant students.
As Khalil’s case is showing, however, we can’t rely on the courts for the defense of our democratic rights. As Samuel Karlin writes, immigration courts have never been meant to represent the working class and oppressed. Now, these institutions are only legitimizing Trump’s McCarthyist attacks on the right to protest, to free speech, and on immigrant and labor rights. These attacks only serve to intimidate the growing student and worker movement that stands against genocide.
In stark contrast, since Khalil’s arrest, millions of people across the country have taken to denouncing the attacks by the Trump administration. In the weekend following his detention, millions signed a petition in support of Khalil. Such was the outpouring of support and public outrage that 50 Congressional Democrats issued a letter within a week to demand Khalil’s release. Thousands took to the streets across the country, including outside a New Jersey courthouse. Jewish protesters in New York City packed the lobby of Trump Tower and staged a sit-in at Columbia University where they chained themselves to the gate demanding Mahmoud’s release. While Rubio and the Trump administration are trying to use claims of anti-Semitism to target and deport immigrant students like Khalil, anti-Zionist Jewish people, especially Jewish youth, have taken to the streets to denounce the conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. As the expansion of attacks since Khalil’s detention shows, the fight to free Mahmoud Khalil and against Trump’s repression is intrinsically bound up with all our struggles. It is urgent, now more than ever, that we unite our struggles and fight back against these attacks with one fist.
We cannot—and will not—tolerate the abduction and deportation of our comrades and colleagues as sacrificial lambs to an authoritarian right-wing Trump administration. We have to organize ourselves as students, workers, immigrants, and the oppressed to reject the court’s decision and not only demand Khalil’s unconditional release —and that of all political prisoners — but also to an end to the attacks on immigrant students and universities. We have to mobilize our full power wherever we are strongest, in the streets, in our workplaces, and on our campuses, against these attacks. It is urgent that we call on our leaderships of our groups in the student movement and labor unions to unify and organize a broad, coordinated response at this critical juncture, where our collective ability to mobilize is being tested and threatened. United, we have the power to free Khalil, fight back all of Trump’s attacks, and even fight for more.
