Mahmoud Khalil, the accused ringleader of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia College, denied all allegations introduced in opposition to him throughout a court docket listening to on Tuesday because the Trump administration strikes to deport the outspoken anti-Israel agitator.
On Tuesday, Khalil met on the LaSalle Immigration Court docket in Jena, Louisiana, together with his crew of attorneys as the federal government pursues his deportation as a consequence of his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia College final yr. He’s presently detained on the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Heart, positioned 4 hours from New Orleans.
About 35 folks attended the listening to, together with his spouse, Noor Abdalla. Six wore pro-Palestinian scarves. Because it ended, Khalil nodded towards them.
The Division of Homeland Safety has till 6 p.m. Wednesday to submit proof supporting his removability forward of his subsequent listening to, which is scheduled for Friday, April 11 at 1 p.m.
PALESTINIAN PROTESTER MAHMOUD KHALIL EXCORIATES COLUMBIA IN OP-ED
Columbia College pupil Mahmoud Khalil talks to the press throughout a briefing organized by pro-Palestinian protesters who arrange an encampment at Columbia College’s Morningside Heights campus on Friday night, in New York Metropolis, United States on June 1, 2024. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu through Getty Pictures)
Khalil, a 30-year-old inexperienced card holder who’s married to a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE final month for his involvement within the pro-Palestinian protests that erupted at Columbia.
A choose not too long ago dominated that his listening to will happen in New Jersey, slightly than the place he’s being held in Louisiana. Khalil’s lawyer alleged that federal prosecutors transferred the graduate’s case to a Louisiana court docket, aiming to extend their probabilities of a positive ruling from judges there.
Baher Amzy, lawyer for Mahmoud Khalil, speaks to members of the media outdoors of the Thurgood Marshall US Courthouse in New York, US, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures)
The listening to got here on the heels of Khalil’s blistering op-ed printed within the college’s newspaper on Friday. The op-ed, titled merely “A letter to Columbia,” accused the establishment of “laying the groundwork for my abduction.”
He went on to match President Donald Trump’s crackdown on anti-Israel protesters to Columbia’s personal apathy towards Palestinians, itemizing different college students who’ve been “snatched by the state.”
VIDEO SHOWS ARREST OF COLUMBIA ANTI-ISRAEL RINGLEADER MAHMOUD KHALIL
“The scenario is oddly paying homage to once I fled the brutality of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and sought refuge in Lebanon,” Khalil wrote. “The logic utilized by the federal authorities to focus on myself and my friends is a direct extension of Columbia’s repression playbook regarding Palestine.”
WATCH: Mahmoud Khalil makes ‘preposterous’ accusation in op-ed
He went on to accuse Columbia directors of producing “public hysteria about antisemitism with out as soon as mentioning the tens of 1000’s of Palestinians murdered below bombs manufactured from your {dollars}.”
IVY LEAGUE ANTI-ISRAEL RINGLEADER MAHMOUD KHALIL WITHHELD DETAILS OF FOREIGN TIES FROM VISA APPLICATION: FEDS
The message got here weeks after ICE brokers detained Khalil in New York Metropolis in early March.
He’s the primary within the Trump administration’s campaign to revoke pupil visas for collaborating in protests. DHS alleged that he “led actions aligned to Hamas, a chosen terrorist group.”
The anti-Israel protests wreaked havoc on faculty campuses following the Oct. 7, 2023 assaults, resulting in Trump’s marketing campaign promise to revoke foreigners’ pupil visas.
“To all of the resident aliens who joined within the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on discover: come 2025, we’ll discover you, and we’ll deport you,” Trump is quoted in a truth sheet issued by the White Home. “I may even shortly cancel the scholar visas of all Hamas sympathizers on faculty campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like by no means earlier than.”
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Fox Information Digital has reached out to Khalil’s lawyer, Baher Amzy, for remark.
