Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil faces deportation to Syria or Algeria

Patricia Hurtado, Bloomberg News on Sep 17, 2025

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Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student detained for more than three months before being freed, has been ordered deported to Syria or Algeria by a U.S. immigration judge, his lawyer said.

Khalil, who was born in Syria and is Palestinian, became a symbol of the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war after his March arrest. While he won a court-ordered release in June, the administration has continued to seek to deport him because of alleged errors in his 2024 green card application.

He and his lawyers vowed to fight the latest decision by an immigration judge in Louisiana that clears the way for him to be removed from the U.S.

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

Khalil’s lawyers are seeking help from a federal district judge in New Jersey who ruled in June Khalil couldn’t be detained or deported based on the Trump administration’s claims that his participation in the protests compromised U.S. foreign policy.

The former Columbia student then applied for a waiver against deportation, which is frequently granted to immigrants whose relatives are U.S. citizens and who have no criminal record. Khalil’s wife is a U.S. citizen and the couple has a baby who was born in April while he was in custody.

Baher Azmy, a lawyer representing Khalil, said in a letter Wednesday to US District Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey that the Louisiana immigration judge’s ruling denying a waiver without holding a hearing was “highly unusual.”

Khalil has 30 days from the immigration court’s Sept. 12 decision to file an appeal, but his lawyers indicated that they will seek a reprieve from Farbiarz. Khalil also has a case pending before a federal appeals court in Philadelphia.

The administration’s push to deport Khalil “represents a substantial threat to petitioner’s liberty, family integrity and if ultimately removed, his physical safety,” his lawyers wrote in the letter to Farbiarz.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

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(With assistance from Zoe Tillman.)

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