{"id":717715,"date":"2026-04-10T08:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/717715\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:35:12","slug":"immigration-board-denies-mahmoud-khalils-appeal-as-federal-case-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/717715\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration board denies Mahmoud Khalil’s appeal as federal case continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 An immigration appeals board has denied Mahmoud Khalil\u2019s latest bid to dismiss his deportation case, a largely expected ruling that brings the former Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist<\/a> one step closer to re-arrest and possible expulsion. <\/p>\n

The Board of Immigration Appeals issued the final order of removal on Thursday, according to Khalil\u2019s lawyers. The board\u2019s rulings are not public, and an inquiry to the U.S. Department of Justice was not immediately returned. <\/p>\n

Khalil said he was not surprised by the ruling, which he called \u201cbiased and politically motivated.\u201d His attorneys said he cannot be lawfully detained or deported as he pursues a separate case<\/a> in the federal court system. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine \u2014 and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it,\u201d Khalil said in a statement. <\/p>\n

The Board of Immigration Appeals sets precedent in the byzantine immigration court system<\/a>, which is controlled by the Department of Justice \u2014 and increasingly under the influence of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Khalil, a 31-year-old legal permanent resident, was the first person whose arrest became publicly known<\/a> during the federal crackdown on noncitizens who publicly criticized Israel and its actions in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The government has claimed that Khalil\u2019s efforts as a leader of pro-Palestinian protests<\/a> at Columbia were \u201caligned to Hamas.\u201d They have not presented evidence of any connection to the terrorist group, and Khalil has adamantly denied allegations of antisemitism. <\/p>\n

After his arrest last March, Khalil spent 104 days in an immigration jail, missing the birth<\/a> of his first child, before he was ordered released by a federal judge in New Jersey. <\/p>\n

Khalil suffered a significant setback in his federal case earlier this year, with a U.S. appeals panel ruling the judge in New Jersey overstepped his authority<\/a> by releasing him. In a 2-1 decision, the panel found that law requires the case to fully move through the immigration courts before Khalil can challenge the decision in federal court.<\/p>\n

Khalil\u2019s lawyers are requesting the full appeals panel reconsider the decision. Earlier this month, they asked one of the appellate panel\u2019s judges to step aside<\/a> because of his previous role as a top Justice Department official involved in investigating student protesters.<\/p>\n

Khalil was born in Syria to a Palestinian family and holds Algerian citizenship through a distant relative. He has said that he could be targeted, and even killed, if he is deported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 An immigration appeals board has denied Mahmoud Khalil\u2019s latest bid to dismiss his deportation…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":717716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[12648,356,69,57,4527,409,8335,401,405,403,50,80,402,2068,94,61,370,103],"class_list":["post-717715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-antisemitism","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-hamas","tag-immigration","tag-mahmoud-khalil","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-protests-and-demonstrations","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states-government","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116379499127240524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}