Mahmoud Khalil: Judge rules Palestinian student activist can be deported from US
Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported from the US, an immigration judge has ruled.
Mr Khalil, a postgraduate student at Columbia University’s school of international and public affairs, has been a prominent figure in the university’s pro-Palestinian student protest movement.
The 30-year-old has held a US permanent residency green card since 2024 and his wife is a US citizen.
Mahmoud Khalil. Pic: AP
Mr Khalil was detained at his Columbia apartment building in Manhattan on 8 March, as agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told him his student visa had been revoked.
It marked the first arrest in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.
Mr Khalil, who acted as a mediator between protesters and university officials during pro-Palestinian demonstrations at New York’s Columbia University last year, is not accused of breaking any laws.
But the Trump administration says noncitizens who participate in demonstrations like he has should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas”.
On Friday, immigration judge Jamee E Comans ruled that the government had the right to deport him, saying its belief that his presence posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation.
Mr Khalil, centre, surrounded by reporters outside the Columbia University campus in April last year. Pic: AP
He said the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable”.
Mr Khalil’s lawyers have said they plan to fight the ruling via the Board of Immigration Appeals and can also pursue an asylum case on his behalf.
The judge gave them until 23 April to seek a waiver.
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His lawyer Marc van der Hout said after the ruling: “Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponisation of immigration law to suppress dissent.”
Mr Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and holds Algerian citizenship, remains in the Louisiana immigration detention centre where federal authorities transferred him after his arrest.
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His defence team has said it is seeking a preliminary injunction from the federal court in New Jersey, which would release him from custody and could block the Trump administration from arresting and detaining people for supporting Palestinian people in Gaza.
The Trump administration has been cracking down on pro-Palestinian protesters at universities across the country.
After his arrest last month, the president said: “This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate it.”
There have also been protests over the arrest of Mr Khalil, including by a Jewish group against the war in Gaza who stormed Trump Tower in New York last month.
Local police said 98 were arrested on charges including trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest.
Iran says “indirect talks” over the country’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme have taken place with US officials, with more to come next week.
The discussions on Saturday took place in Muscat, Oman, with the host nation’s officials mediating between representatives of Iran and the US, who were seated in separate rooms, according to Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry.
After the talks concluded, Oman and Iranian officials reported that Iran and the US had had agreed to hold more negotiations next week.
Oman’s foreign minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi tweeted after the meeting, thanking Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for joining the negotiations aimed at “global peace, security and stability”.
“We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal,” he added.
(L-R) Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi meets his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi. Pic: Iranian foreign ministry/AP
Iranian state media claimed the US and Iranian officials “briefly spoke in the presence of the Omani foreign minister” at the end of the talks – a claim Mr Araghchi echoed in a statement on Telegram.
He added the talks took place in a “constructive atmosphere based on mutual respect” and that they would continue next week.
American officials did not immediately acknowledge the reports from Iran.
Mr Araghchi said before the meeting on Saturday there was a “chance for initial understanding on further negotiations if the other party [US] enters the talks with an equal stance”.
He told Iran’s state TV: “Our intention is to reach a fair and honourable agreement – from an equal footing.
“And if the other side has also entered from the same position, God willing, there will be a chance for an initial agreement that can lead to a path of negotiations.”
Reuters news agency said an Omani source told it the talks were focused on de-escalating regional tensions, prisoner exchanges and limited agreements to ease sanctions in exchange for controlling Iran’s nuclear programme.
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President Donald Trump has insisted Tehran cannot get nuclear weapons.
He said on Monday that the talks would be direct, but Tehran officials insisted it would be conducted through an intermediary.
Mr Trump also warned Iran would be in “great danger” if negotiations fail.
“Hopefully those talks will be successful, it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful,” he said. “We hope that’s going to happen.”
He added Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran”.
The comments came after Mr Trump’s previous warnings of possible military action against Iran if there is no deal over its nuclear programme.
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Saturday’s meeting marked the first between the countries since Mr Trump’s second term in the White House began.
During his first term, he withdrew the US from a deal between Iran and world powers designed to curb Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.
He also reimposed US sanctions.
Iran has since far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes but Western powers accuse it of having a clandestine agenda.
Mr Witkoff came from talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday, as the US tries to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
Donald Trump has had his annual medical check-up, although the US president has consistently chosen to keep basic facts about his health secret.
There is no guarantee the public will be told about the health of a man who, at the age of 78, was the oldest in US history to be sworn in as president.
“I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Mr Trump posted on his social media site.
He will be examined at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Washington DC, but he will have leeway over what details are released.
If history is repeated, his latest physical examination is likely to produce a flattering report that is scarce on details.
It represents the first potential opportunity to discover the status of Mr Trump’s health since an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July last year.
Donald Trump was defiant after a failed assassination attempt in July. Pic: AP
At that time, Ronny Jackson, a staunch supporter who served as his White House doctor, wrote a memo describing a gunshot wound to Mr Trump’s right ear. He once joked that the president could live to be 200 if he had a healthier diet.
Despite Mr Trump promising in a CBS interview last August that he would “very gladly” release his medical records, he never did.
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During President Biden’s time in office, medical reports have typically included vital statistics like height, weight, heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol results, along with any medical symptoms. Other checks have included the vital organs and a neurological assessment.
Mr Trump has offered few details about his health over the years, despite repeatedly questioning the physical and mental capacity of his predecessor Mr Biden, who is three years older.
Trump contracted COVID-19 in 2020. Pic: Reuters
In 2020, President Trump contracted COVID-19. After his recovery, more details emerged that he had been sicker than he had let on.
In November 2023, Mr Trump’s doctor released a letter to coincide with Mr Biden’s 81st birthday, saying Mr Trump was in “excellent” physical and mental health.
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It said that his “physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional”, adding he had “reduced his weight”.
But there were a lot of details missing, including weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any tests.
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During his first term in office, his first medical check-up as president included details of his daily anti-baldness pills. But subsequent medical examinations were less transparent.
In November 2019, Mr Trump underwent a medical examination which was not revealed until three days later. He would only say it was a “very routine physical”.
A year later, an examination found he was technically obese and was taking medication to treat high cholesterol.
Before Mr Trump first ran for office in 2015, the results of a medical examination were described as “astonishingly excellent” by his personal doctor.
Dr Harold Bornstein stated at the time that Mr Trump would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
The doctor later admitted to CNN that Mr Trump had dictated those words to him.
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