Donald Trump’s border czar is adamant that Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil will still be deported from the country despite several court rulings that have kept the Palestinian activist out of detention.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a request from the Trump administration to re-arrest Khalil and keep him in immigration detention center while he continues to challenge the government’s attempts to remove him from the United States. Homan says the administration will continue to appeal.
“We got radical judges just trying to stop the Trump administration from doing our job and enforcing the law,” he told Newsmax on Thursday.
He claimed there is “only one ending” to Khalil’s case: “We detain him and deport him, but regardless, he will be deported.”
That same day, the immigration court judge overseeing his case voided her earlier ruling that allowed the government to deport him.
Khalil, a prominent student activist against Israel’s war in Gaza, was stripped of his green card and arrested in front of his then-pregnant wife in their New York City apartment building on March 8. He was then sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, where he was held for more than 100 days and forced to miss the birth of his child.
Trump administration officials have accused Khalil of “antisemitic activities,” allegations Khalil and his legal team have flatly denied. Officials concede that Khalil did not commit any crime, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sought to justify Khalil’s arrest by claiming that Khalil’s presence in the country undermines foreign policy interests to prevent antisemitism.
Khalil and his legal team argue his arrest and detention — and attempted removal from the country, which is currently blocked by court order — are retaliatory violations of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and his Fifth Amendment right to due process of law, among other claims.
“Look, First Amendment rights have a limitation, too,” Homan told Newsmax. “He did a lot of bad things. We’re going to hold him accountable. He will be deported.”
On June 11, a federal judge granted Khalil’s release from ICE detention on bail while legal challenges against his arrest and threat of removal from the country continue in both federal and immigration courts.
New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled that the administration had unconstitutionally wielded the law against Khalil, whose “career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled,” the judge wrote.
The government has “little or no interest in applying the relevant underlying statutes in what is likely an unconstitutional way,” Farbiarz added.
“Mahmoud spent 104 days in detention as punishment for speaking out for Palestinian rights,” ACLU senior staff attorney Noor Zafar said in a statement after this week’s appeals court ruling.
“That is time with his family that he will never get back, but this decision affirms that he will remain free and that the government cannot pursue his removal based on the likely unconstitutional foreign policy charge as his case moves through appeal,” she added. “We will not stand by and allow the government to weaponize immigration law to suppress lawful political speech.”
Khalil’s attorneys have also argued that the administration’s secondary basis for his arrest and removal — allegations that he lied in immigration paperwork — are similarly retaliatory and violate his First Amendment and Fifth Amendment due process rights.
The White House continues to insist that Khalil can still be deported on those grounds.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Independent on Friday that “Khalil was given the privilege of coming to America to study on a student visa he obtained by fraud and misrepresentation.”
“Despite the lower court judge’s wishes to the contrary, the executive branch has the lawful authority to take actions that will protect America’s foreign policy interests and promote the overall welfare of the public,” she added. “The Trump Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”
