WASHINGTON (AP) — The arrest of a Palestinian activist who helped arrange campus protests of the warfare in Gaza has sparked questions on whether or not overseas college students and inexperienced card holders are protected in opposition to being deported from the U.S.
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested Saturday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers. Homeland Safety officers and President Donald Trump have indicated that the arrest was straight tied to his function within the protests final spring at Columbia College in New York Metropolis.
Khalil is being held at an immigration detention heart in Jena, Louisiana, whereas he awaits immigration courtroom proceedings that might ultimately result in him being deported. His arrest has drawn criticism that he’s being unfairly and unlawfully focused for his activism whereas the federal authorities has basically described him as a terrorist sympathizer.
A have a look at what sort of protections overseas college students and inexperienced card holders have and what is likely to be subsequent for Khalil:
Can somebody with a inexperienced card be deported?
A inexperienced card holder is somebody who has lawful everlasting residence standing in the US.
Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer is a legislation professor at Cornell Legislation College who teaches immigration legislation. She mentioned lawful everlasting residents usually have many protections and “must be essentially the most protected in need of a US citizen.”
However that safety isn’t absolute. Inexperienced card holders can nonetheless be deported for committing sure crimes, failing to inform immigration officers of a change in deal with or partaking in marriage fraud, for instance.
The Division of Homeland Safety mentioned Khalil was taken into custody on account of Trump’s government orders prohibiting antisemitism.
FILE PHOTO: Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of media in regards to the “Revolt for Rafah” encampment at Columbia College in the course of the ongoing battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in New York Metropolis, June 1, 2024. Photograph by Jeenah Moon/Reuters
Trump has argued that protesters forfeited their rights to stay within the nation by supporting the Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza and has been designated as a terrorist group.
Khalil and different pupil leaders of Columbia College Apartheid Divest have rejected claims of antisemitism, saying they’re a part of a broader anti-war motion that additionally consists of Jewish college students and teams. However the protest coalition, at occasions, has additionally voiced help for leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, one other Islamist group designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group.
WATCH: Trump administration targets overseas pupil who protested in opposition to Israel’s warfare in Gaza
Specialists say that officers appear to point with their rhetoric that they’re making an attempt to deport Khalil on the grounds that he’s partaking in some kind of terrorist exercise or in some way poses a risk.
Khalil has not been convicted of any terrorist-related exercise. In reality, he has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
However specialists say the federal authorities has pretty broad authority to arrest and attempt to deport a inexperienced card holder on terrorism grounds.
Below the Immigration and Nationality Act, inexperienced card holders don’t have to be convicted of one thing to be “detachable,” Kelley-Widmer mentioned. They might be deported if the secretary of homeland safety or the legal professional common have cheap grounds to consider they engaged in, or are prone to interact in, terrorist actions, she mentioned.
However Kelley-Widmer mentioned she’s by no means seen a case the place the alleged terrorist exercise occurred within the U.S., and she or he questioned whether or not collaborating in protests as Khalil did qualifies.
What did ICE say about why they had been arresting him?
One of many key points in Khalil’s case is what ICE brokers mentioned to his lawyer on the time he was arrested.
His lawyer, Amy Greer, mentioned the brokers who took him into custody at his university-owned house close to Columbia initially claimed to be performing on a State Division order to revoke his pupil visa.
However when Greer knowledgeable them that Khalil was a everlasting resident with a inexperienced card, they mentioned they’d revoke that documentation as an alternative.
Kelley-Widmer mentioned that trade raises questions on how acquainted the brokers who arrested him had been with the legislation or whether or not there was a “actual disregard for the rule of legislation.”
“I feel we must be actually involved that that is taking place,” she mentioned.
The Jena/La Salle ICE detention facility the place Palestinian Columbia pupil Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by U.S. Division of Homeland Safety brokers, was transferred is seen in Jena, Louisiana, U.S. March 10, 2025. Photograph by Edmund Fountain/REUTERS
What are the subsequent steps in his case?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned in a message posted Sunday on X that the administration will probably be “revoking the visas and/or inexperienced playing cards of Hamas supporters in America to allow them to be deported.”
If somebody is within the nation on a pupil visa, the State Division does have authority to revoke it if the individual violates sure circumstances. For instance, mentioned Florida immigration legal professional John Gihon, it’s fairly frequent for the State Division to cancel visas of overseas college students who get arrested for drunk driving.
However in the case of somebody who’s a lawful everlasting resident, that usually requires an immigration decide to find out whether or not they are often deported.
Gihon mentioned the subsequent step is that Khalil would obtain charging paperwork explaining why he’s being detained and why the federal government needs to take away him, in addition to a discover to look in immigration courtroom.
Usually, he ought to obtain these inside 72 hours of being arrested, after which he would make an preliminary look earlier than an immigration decide. That would take from 10 days to a month, Gihon mentioned.
However he cautioned that proper now he’s seeing in depth delays throughout the immigration courtroom system, with shoppers typically moved across the nation to completely different services.
“We’re having people who find themselves detained after which they’re bounced round to a number of completely different detention services. After which typically they’re transferred throughout the nation,” he mentioned.
Khalil’s attorneys have additionally filed a lawsuit difficult his detention. A federal decide in New York Metropolis ordered that Khalil not be deported whereas the courtroom thought-about his case. A listening to is scheduled for Wednesday.
