Judge Orders Columbia Encampment Organizer Mahmoud Khalil's Deportation to Algeria or Syria

An immigration judge has ordered Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of last year's anti-Semitic protests at Columbia University, to be deported to Algeria or Syria, finding that Khalil "willfully misrepresented" his campus activism and work for the Hamas-tied U.N. agency UNRWA on his immigration forms.

Khalil must be "REMOVED from the United States to Algeria, or in the alternative to Syria," immigration judge Jamee Comans wrote in a Friday order, according to documents filed Wednesday by Khalil's lawyers. The immigration court, which had already rejected Khalil's asylum request in June, gave him 30 days from Friday's order to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

In the Wednesday filing, Khalil's lawyers wrote that "they intend to appeal the deportation order, but expressed concern that the appeal process will likely be swift and unfavorable," Politico reported.

The longtime anti-Semitic activist last year emerged as a prominent leader of anti-Israel protests that rocked Columbia's campus. While the Trump administration earlier this year revoked Khalil's visa and green card and detained the activist for national security reasons, a federal judge ordered his release in June. The administration then pursued Khalil's deportation on separate grounds, leading to the ruling Friday.

Democratic lawmakers and the mainstream media reacted angrily earlier this year when the Trump administration moved to deport Khalil, saying that Khalil's campus activism was protected under the First Amendment. The activist in a July interview with CNN refused to condemn Hamas, lashing out at the interviewers for suggesting he should.

Khalil worked for UNRWA during Hamas's October 7 attacks but hid that work from his U.S. green card application, prosecutors said earlier this year.

Comans pointed to Khalil's nondisclosure of his UNRWA work as a reason for the deportation.

"The Respondent failed to disclose his involvement, association and participation with United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), on his Form I-485," Comans wrote.

"This Court finds that Respondent's lack of candor on his I-485 was not an oversight by an uninformed, uneducated applicant," Comans's order goes on. "Rather, this Court finds that Respondent willfully misrepresented material fact(s) for the sole purpose of circumventing the immigration process and reducing the likelihood his application would be denied."

Update 12:46 p.m.: Paragraph 5 has been updated with information about Khalil's CNN interview.

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