NEW YORK (AP) — Going through a deadline from an immigration choose to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal authorities has as a substitute submitted a short memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel noncitizens whose presence within the nation damages U.S. international coverage pursuits.
The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Related Press, doesn’t allege any prison conduct by Khalil, a authorized everlasting U.S. resident and graduate pupil who served as spokesperson for campus activists final 12 months throughout giant demonstrations in opposition to Israel’s remedy of Palestinians and the battle in Gaza.
Slightly, Rubio wrote Khalil may very well be expelled for his beliefs.
He stated that whereas Khalil’s actions have been “in any other case lawful,” letting him stay within the nation would undermine “U.S. coverage to fight anti-Semitism around the globe and in the USA, along with efforts to guard Jewish college students from harassment and violence in the USA.”
“Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the USA would severely undermine that vital international coverage goal,” Rubio wrote within the undated memo.
AP AUDIO: Decide tells authorities to offer proof, or case in opposition to Columbia pupil Mahmoud Khalil is over
AP correspondent Julie Walker reviews on the Trump administrations deportation case in opposition to a Columbia College protester.
The submission was filed Wednesday after Decide Jamee Comans ordered the government to produce its evidence in opposition to Khalil forward of a listening to Friday on whether or not it will probably proceed detaining him throughout immigration proceedings.
Attorneys for Khalil stated the memo proved the Trump administration was “concentrating on Mahmoud’s free speech rights about Palestine.”
“After a month of hiding the ball since Mahmoud’s late-night unjust arrest in New York and taking him away to a distant detention middle in Louisiana, immigration authorities have lastly admitted that they haven’t any case in anyway in opposition to him,” the attorneys, Marc Van Der Hout and Johnny Sinodis, stated in a joint assertion.
“There may be not a single shred of proof that Mahmoud’s presence in America poses any risk,” they added.
A Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, didn’t reply to questions on whether or not it had further proof in opposition to Khalil, writing in an emailed assertion, “DHS did file proof, however immigration courtroom dockets are usually not obtainable to the general public.”
Khalil, a 30-year-old Palestinian by ethnicity who was born in Syria, was arrested March 8 in New York and brought to a detention middle in Louisiana. He just lately completed his coursework for a grasp’s diploma at Columbia’s college of worldwide affairs. His spouse, an American citizen, is because of give delivery this month.
Khalil has adamantly rejected allegations of antisemitism, accusing the Trump administration in a letter despatched from jail final month of “concentrating on me as a part of a broader technique to suppress dissent.”
“Figuring out totally that this second transcends my particular person circumstances,” he added, “I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the delivery of my first-born baby.”
Although Rubio’s memo references further paperwork, together with a “topic profile of Mahmoud Khalil” and letter from the Division Homeland Safety, the federal government didn’t submit these paperwork to the immigration courtroom, in accordance with Khalil’s attorneys.
The memo additionally requires the deportation of a second lawful everlasting resident, whose identify is redacted within the submitting.
The Trump administration has pulled billions of dollars in authorities funding from universities and their affiliated hospital methods in latest weeks as a part of what it says is a marketing campaign in opposition to antisemitism on faculty campuses, however which critics say is a crackdown on free speech. To get the cash again, the administration has been telling universities to punish protesters and make other changes.
The U.S. authorities has additionally been revoking the visas of worldwide college students who criticized Israel or accused it of mistreating Palestinians.
On the time of Khalil’s arrest, a Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson accused Khalil of main actions “aligned to Hamas,” referring to the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
However the authorities has not produced any proof linking Khalil to Hamas, and made no reference to the group of their most up-to-date submitting.
In the meantime, attorneys for Yunseo Chung, 21, one other Columbia pupil and lawful U.S. resident whom the Division of Homeland Safety seeks to deport, included the Rubio letter as an exhibit in courtroom papers filed late Thursday in Manhattan federal courtroom.
The attorneys requested a choose to allow them to receive paperwork from the federal government associated to the concentrating on of their shopper, together with any that reference her by identify associated to the State Division’s determination to maneuver to deport her.
Chung, who was arrested on a misdemeanor cost at a latest sit-in at Barnard School protesting the expulsion of scholars who participated in pro-Palestinian activism, has been ordered freed whereas her authorized problem is pending.
