Trump administration accuses pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil of hiding info on his green card application

(CNN) — The Trump administration – after accusing Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil of being a Hamas sympathizer without providing evidence – now says Khalil’s deportation is justified because he did not reveal connections to two organizations in his application to become a permanent US resident, an argument his attorneys call weak.

Khalil failed to state on his green card application he had previously worked for the Syria office of the British Embassy in Beirut and was a member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, the government says, the latter a focus of intense criticism from American and Israeli politicians who accuse it of antisemitism.

Khalil was an unpaid intern with UNRWA in 2023, but was never on staff, agency spokesperson Juliette Touma told CNN.

Khalil “sought to procure an immigration benefit by fraud of willful misrepresentation of a material fact,” the government wrote in the brief filed Sunday. “Regardless of his allegations concerning political speech, Khalil withheld membership in certain organizations … It is black-letter law that misrepresentations in this context are not protected speech.”

Khalil, a negotiator for pro-Palestinian student protesters in talks with Columbia’s administration over last spring’s contentious campus encampment against the Israel-Hamas war, was arrested March 8 and has been detained since then by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. US District Judge Jesse Furman, an Obama appointee, has blocked the government indefinitely from deporting Khalil and transferred the case.

The Trump administration initially said Khalil was a threat to US security, citing a law that allows noncitizens to be deported if their presence has “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

Asked how Khalil had engaged in terrorist activity, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar told NPR on March 13: “I think it’s clear, or we wouldn’t be talking about it,” and provided no additional details.

Other foreign academics also have been identified for deportation this month as the administration squeezes colleges over pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a broader immigration crackdown.

Khalil’s attorneys argue the new justification to deport him is weak.

“We’re not at all surprised because it’s a recognition that the initial charges are unsustainable,” attorney Baher Azmy told CNN. “So, they’re going with a theory that they must think is more legally defensible. But I just think this doesn’t cure the obvious taint of retaliation.”

Khalil’s defense will file a response to the new government allegations by Tuesday afternoon, Azmy promised in a court filing.

In a letter dictated to his attorneys last week, Khalil called himself a “political prisoner.”

Khalil’s immigration proceedings are separate from the federal case challenging the legality of his detention. The government’s immigration fraud claims would have to be presented to an immigration judge who could ultimately decide to deport him.

Why UNRWA is controversial

Long before Khalil’s detention, UNRWA was a lightning rod for American and Israeli politicians who accuse the agency of antisemitic behavior alongside its humanitarian mission. Founded in 1949, it has been the United Nation’s primary agency for providing aid and relief to Palestinians living in the Gaza and the West Bank – as well as other countries – including shelter, health care, food and education.

Israel last year banned UNRWA from operating in that country, accusing the organization of “spreading antisemitism” and saying some UNRWA employees – who are mostly Palestinian – participated in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people.

Allegations about UNRWA workers’ involvement in the attack prompted the Biden administration to pull US funding from the agency in January 2024, and more than a dozen other countries followed suit. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February cutting off US aid to the organization. “UNRWA has reportedly been infiltrated by members of groups long designated … as foreign terrorist organizations,” he asserted.

Officials with UNRWA have denied they are deliberately aiding terrorists and said claims their facilities have been used for terrorism operations – including the detention of Israeli hostages – should be independently investigated.

“Dismantling UNRWA will only deepen the suffering of Palestine refugees,” its Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said last month.

Judge asked to move Khalil closer to family

Attorneys for Khalil submitted a motion Monday opposing the government’s continued efforts to keep his case in Louisiana, where he is currently being held in custody.

Shortly after his arrest, Khalil – a citizen of Algeria who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, according to his court filings – was transferred to an ICE processing facility in Jena, Louisiana, more than a thousand miles away from the court. A federal judge has ruled the case should be heard in New Jersey.

The government told a judge a detention center in New Jersey was unsuitable “because the facility was dealing with bedbug issues” and lack of space, it said in the brief filed Sunday.

Khalil’s attorney says any questions about whether his residency application was properly filled out should be decided by a judge, not unilaterally by ICE.

“We’ll deal with that claim on its own terms when the time comes in the immigration court,” Azmy told CNN. “For now, for purposes of the federal case and his right to bond and ultimately his release from detention, we don’t think it undermines our case at all.”

CNN’s Eric Levenson, Nadeen Ebrahim and Salma Arafa contributed to this report.

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