by Cate Brown, Maria Sacchetti, John Hudson (c) 2025 , The Washington Post
NEW YORK – A determination by Secretary of State Marco Rubio is so far the Trump administration’s sole justification for trying to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, according to the first official government document detailing the civil charges he is facing that was obtained by The Washington Post.
Khalil’s lawyers appeared in federal court Wednesday morning, after filing papers urging a judge to release the student or return him to New York, days after immigration agents arrested him at his apartment and moved him to a detention center in Louisiana that is 1,300 miles away. The Trump administration has said it will target noncitizens protesting the war between Israel and Hamas, which has led to campus protests across the United States, while opponents say the government is trampling on the First Amendment right to free speech.
White House officials said the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investigated Khalil’s activities, but immigration officers provided no written evidence to support his deportation beyond Rubio’s determination. The document, a notice to appear in immigration court, says Khalil is a citizen of Algeria and has an immigration court hearing later this month.
After arresting Khalil on Saturday, ICE supervisory special agent Timothy Moran in New York presented Khalil with a notice to appear in a federal immigration court inside a Louisiana detention center. The notice said he could be deported based on section 237 (a)(4)(C) (i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that says “the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe that your presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” Khalil refused to sign the document.
Rubio told reporters Wednesday that students such as Khalil would not have been allowed into the United States had officials known they would engage in protests.
“This is not about free speech,” Rubio said during a refueling stop on the way to the annual Group of Seven, a summit of the world’s major democracies held this year in Canada. “No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way.”
Rubio echoed the Trump administration’s claims that Khalil and others have supported Hamas, a designated terror group, and said the protests have turned violent and made other students afraid of going to class.
“There are kids at these schools that can’t go to class. You pay all this money to these high-priced schools that are supposed to be of great esteem, and you can’t even go to class. You’re afraid to go to class because these lunatics are running around with covers on their face, screaming terrifying things,” Rubio said. “If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in. If you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out.”
Khalil’s lawyers say he has no criminal history and would not have qualified for a visa or a permanent resident card if he had.
His lawyer has said in court records that he is a graduate student working on a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, where more than half of the students are from other countries. He wrapped up his studies in December and was set to graduate in May. He arrived on a student visa in 2022, married a U.S. citizen in 2023 and became a permanent resident in 2024.
Though raised in Syria, Khalil is of Palestinian descent and felt compelled to speak out about the war’s effect on Palestinians, who have been killed by the tens of thousands as the war ravages the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. He led public demonstrations and served as a negotiator between demonstrators and campus officials. His family fled the war in Syria and are dispersed throughout Europe and West Asia.
“As a Palestinian, Mr. Khalil has felt compelled to be an outspoken advocate for the human rights of Palestinians, including on the campus of Columbia University,” his lawyers said in a court filing Monday. “He is committed to calling on the rest of the world to protect the rights of Palestinians under international law and to stop enabling violence against Palestinians.”
Immigration officials arrested Khalil Saturday night while he was returning home to his apartment with his wife, a U.S. citizen who is due to give birth to their first child next month, and they quickly moved him to an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana.
Much of his case has been shrouded in secrecy, despite the publicity, because immigration court records and other documentation are generally not available to the public.
“This is clearly an attempt to deport Mahmoud by exploiting a vague and overly broad provision of U.S. immigration law,” said Brad Parker, an attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has initiated legal proceedings challenging the basis of Khalil’s detention and seeking his return to New York. “This provision, if not reigned in, will be exploited to pursue the deportation of anyone who disagrees with the administration’s foreign policy agenda. This is not about security, this is about absolute executive power and repression.”
Federal immigration officials have declined to say when Khalil’s immigration hearing would be held. The notice shows the hearing is currently scheduled for March 27 at the detention center.
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Dan Diamond, Shayna Jacobs and Susan Svrluga contributed to this report.