An immigration judge in Louisiana ordered the federal government on Tuesday to provide evidence by justifying his attempt to deport a student activist from the University of Columbia on Wednesday.
During a hearing, judge Jamee Comans gave the federal government 24 hours to give evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent American resident and eminent pro-Palestinian militant, said Marc Van der Hout, one of Khalil’s lawyers, who attended the hearing.
“The government has not produced a single reduction in evidence to date to support one of its allegations or accusations in this case, in particular its scandalous position according to which the simple presence and activities of Mahmoud in this country has potentially seriously the unfavorable consequences of foreign policy,” said Van der Hout.
The Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Khalil, 30, who holds a green card granting him a permanent residence in the United States, was arrested outside his apartment belonging to a university in New York in March and moved to a detention center in Louisiana.
The Trump administration has cited a provision rarely used in immigration law which allows the Secretary of State to expel someone if it is determined that the person “would have serious consequences unfavorable to foreign policy for the United States”.
The government also allegedly alleged that Khalil had retained information on his membership of certain organizations and did not disclose his job at the British office at the British Embassy in Beirut in his request for permanent residence.
A Khalil lawyer said that the government’s allegations “mainly show that the government must know the supposed reasons for the” foreign policy “for Mahmoud’s dismissal is absurd and unconstitutional”.
The Ministry of Internal Security said that Khalil “directed activities aligned with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization”, but a Khalil lawyer said that there was no evidence that he had provided a type of support for a terrorist organization.
The press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said that Khalil “organized group demonstrations which not only disrupted the courses of the university and harassed campus of American Jewish students and made them feel dangerous on their own university campus” and “distributed Pro-Hamas Propaganda, Fliers with the logo of Hamas”.
Khalil is not publicly known to deal with criminal charges.
COMANS, the immigration judge, planned an audience for Friday when she decides if Khalil can be removed from his United States or order it. If it is deemed expensive, Khalil’s legal team could request relief from the dismissal.
Van der Hout, one of his lawyers, said that the intention of the comans to govern later this week provides “no realistic opportunity to Mahmoud and his lawyers to challenge this baseless accusation”.
“If this turns out to be what is happening on Friday, it would be an unpretentious precipitation for a judgment which would completely deprive Mahmoud of any regular procedure, which is a foundation of our legal system,” said Van der Hout.
Khalil and his wife, an American citizen, are waiting for the birth of their first child this month. Earlier Tuesday, his wife, Noor Abdalla, wrote a letter to Khalil.
“I miss you more and more every day,” she wrote, “and while the days bring us closer to the arrival of our child, I am haunted by the uncertainty that is looming on me-the possibility that you are not there for this monumental moment.”
