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in Manhattan on 8 March, as agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told him his student visa had been revoked.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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Jewish protesters against war in Gaza chant ‘Bring Mahmoud home now’
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.
A former top college football player has died along with members of her family in a private plane crash in New York state.
The twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B went down shortly after noon on Saturday in a muddy field in Copake, near the Massachusetts border, killing all six people on board.
Among the victims were Karenna Groff, a former MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) football player, who was named the 2022 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) woman of the year.
Her neuroscientist father, Dr Michael Groff, her mother, Dr Joy Saini, a urogynecologist, and her brother, Jared Groff, who worked as a paralegal, were also killed.
Former college football player Karenna Groff. File pic: AP
Karenna Groff’s boyfriend, James Santoro, and Jared Groff’s partner, Alexia Couyutas Duarte, also died.
Mr Santoro’s father, John Santoro, said: “The 25 years we had with James were the best years of our lives… and the joy and love he brought us will be enough to last a lifetime.”
He described Karenna Groff and her relatives as “a wonderful family”.
“The world lost a lot of very good people who were going to do a lot of good for the world if they had the opportunity. We’re all personally devastated,” he added.
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They boarded Michael Groff’s private plane at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, a suburb of New York City, on Saturday morning to fly to Columbia County Airport.
But the aircraft crashed around 10 miles to the south and was left “compressed, buckled and embedded in the terrain”, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official Todd Inman said.
Shortly before the plane came down, the pilot had radioed air traffic control at Columbia County Airport to say he had missed the initial approach and requested a new approach plan, he said.
Investigators obtained video of the final seconds of the flight, which “appears to show that the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground,” he added.
A full accident report could take between 12 and 24 months to complete.
It comes days after a family of five Spanish tourists, including three children, were killed in a helicopter crash in the Hudson River on Thursday.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his family were forced to flee in the middle of the night during Passover after an alleged arsonist set fire to their residence, authorities said.
Mr Shapiro, a Democrat seen as a potential candidate for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028, said he and his family woke up at about 2am on Sunday to “bangs on the door” by police after a fire was allegedly set at the governor’s residence in Harrisburg.
Mr Shapiro said he, his wife, their four children, two dogs and another family were evacuated as the fire service tackled the flames.
Pic: Commonwealth Media Services
Pic: Commonwealth Media Services
“Thank God no one was injured,” he said in a post on X.
A 38-year-old man identified as Cody Balmer, from Harrisburg, was arrested later in the day.
Pic: Commonwealth Media Services
Pic: Commonwealth Media Services
He will face charges of attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault, authorities said.
“Every day, we stand with the law enforcement and first responders who run towards danger to protect our communities,” Mr Shapiro said on X.
“Last night, they did so for our family – and Lori and I are eternally grateful to them for keeping us safe.”
Pic: Commonwealth Media Services
Charred wood and brick are visible at the Pennsylvania governor’s official residence. Pic: AP
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro. Pic: Reuters
The suspect’s motive is still unknown.
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According to Pennsylvania police officials, he slipped over a fence around the property carrying homemade incendiary devices and evaded state troopers long enough to enter the residence, set it on fire and leave.
On Saturday, Mr Shapiro posted a picture of his family’s “seder” table as they celebrated the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover.
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