New York (AFP) – Lawyers for a prominent pro-Palestinian protest leader requested Friday that US immigration authorities terminate their push to deport him, alleging the Trump administration “secretly engineered” the outcome of his case. US President Trump has championed the effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by undercover federal agents in March 2025, one of the first detentions of foreigners linked to pro-Palestinian activity in the United States.
Khalil is a former graduate student at New York’s Columbia University and was a prominent face of pro-Palestinian protests at the college at the height of the war in Gaza. The Trump administration sought to have him deported on the grounds that his activities were harmful to US foreign affairs, sparking a long and complex legal fight. Though he was released from custody in June, Khalil has faced continued threats of deportation from federal authorities.
“New evidence reveals that the Trump Administration secretly engineered the outcome of his immigration case to make an example of him,” Khalil’s lawyers said in a statement. In a new filing Friday, they requested that the Board of Immigration Appeals, part of the US Department of Justice, re-open Khalil’s case and terminate it.
On April 9, 2026, the BIA dismissed Khalil’s challenge against his removal and issued a “final” removal order. The BIA “improperly influenced the lower immigration court’s decision, fast-tracked his proceedings, bypassed the normal channels through which immigration appeals are docketed and adjudicated, and ultimately reached a decision in an unheard-of nine days,” Khalil’s lawyers claim.
Khalil cannot legally be detained again or deported pending appeals of other legal orders, they argue. “The administration wants to arrest, detain, and deport me to intimidate everyone speaking out for Palestine across this country, and they are willing to violate longstanding US rules and procedures to do it,” said Khalil. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which includes the Board of Immigration Appeals, did not respond to an AFP request for comment.
© 2024 AFP
