Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil Must Be Deported to Syria or Algeria

"It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech," Khalil said in a statement to the ACLU.

By Audra Heinrichs | September 18, 2025 | 5:11pm

Photo Credit: Getty Images News Politics

Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil Must Be Deported to Syria or Algeria

Three months after Mahmoud Khalil was released from an immigration jail, a judge has ordered that the Columbia University graduate, who organized student encampments in protest of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, must be deported.

On Wednesday, the Biden-appointed Louisiana Judge Jamee Comans said Khalil “willfully misrepresented material fact(s) for the sole purpose of circumventing the immigration process.” As a result, Comans said he should be sent either to Algeria or Syria.

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Since Khalil’s arrest in March, the Trump administration has alleged that Khalil didn’t include his membership in certain organizations, including his role as a political officer of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency of Palestine Refugees. It also claimed that Khalil omitted his position in the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut from his permanent residency application. However, NBC News previously reviewed 100 pages of documents submitted by the government in its attempt to deport Khalil and concluded that much of their evidence either relied on “unverified tabloid reports” or “factually incorrect” claims. Khalil came to the U.S. from Syria on a student visa in December 2022, but his status was changed to lawful permanent resident in November 2024.

“It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech,” Khalil said in a statement to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colors once again.”

“When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide,” he continued. “Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation.”

Lawyers for Khalil said they planned to appeal the decision, and noted that the federal court orders prohibiting the government from deporting or detaining him remain in effect. Before Khalil’s release from his 104-day stay in a Louisiana detention center in June, Judge Michael Farbiarz issued an order stating that the state’s grounds for his March arrest—that his anti-genocide stance is a potential threat to the nation’s foreign policy—could give way to carte blanche detentions and deportations. As the Guardian noted at the time, Farbiarz’s ruling was the first one by a federal judge regarding the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s pursuit of the deportation of any non-citizen deemed a peril to U.S. foreign policy.

“Petitioner is not a flight risk, and the evidence presented is that he is not a danger to the community,” Farbiarz said. “Period, full stop.” Less than one month later, Khalil was free to return home to New York City and his wife and newborn son. Since then, Khalil has participated in multiple protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and is making up for lost time with his five-month-old son, who was born while he was detained.

“We just need to be persistent. It’s not going to be this linear change,” Khalil told Nan Goldin in a recent conversation for Dazed. “I’m not trying to give false hope. I’m very grounded in the realities and the immensity of the injustice of this machine against us. But we don’t have any other option. Had you ever thought that the president of America would go after a student for speaking?”

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