NEW YORK (AP) — Going through a deadline from an immigration decide to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal authorities has as an alternative 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. overseas 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 scholar who served as spokesperson for campus activists final 12 months throughout massive demonstrations in opposition to Israel’s remedy of Palestinians and the warfare in Gaza.
Fairly, Rubio wrote Khalil might be expelled for his beliefs.
He stated that whereas Khalil’s actions had been “in any other case lawful,” letting him stay within the nation would undermine “U.S. coverage to fight anti-Semitism all over the world and in america, along with efforts to guard Jewish college students from harassment and violence in america.”
“Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in america would severely undermine that vital overseas coverage goal,” Rubio wrote within the undated memo.
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 could proceed detaining him throughout immigration proceedings.
Attorneys for Khalil stated the memo proved the Trump administration was “focusing 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 heart 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’s not a single shred of proof that Mahmoud’s presence in America poses any menace,” they added.
A Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, didn’t reply to questions on whether or not it had extra proof in opposition to Khalil, writing in an emailed assertion, “DHS did file proof, however immigration court docket dockets will not be out there 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 heart in Louisiana. He lately completed his coursework for a grasp’s diploma at Columbia’s faculty of worldwide affairs. His spouse, an American citizen, is because of give beginning this month.
Khalil has adamantly rejected allegations of antisemitism, accusing the Trump administration in a letter despatched from jail final month of “focusing on me as a part of a broader technique to suppress dissent.”
“Understanding absolutely that this second transcends my particular person circumstances,” he added, “I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the beginning of my first-born baby.”
Although Rubio’s memo references extra 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 court docket, in keeping with Khalil’s legal professionals.
The memo additionally requires the deportation of a second lawful everlasting resident, whose title is redacted within the submitting.
The Trump administration has pulled billions of dollars in authorities funding from universities and their affiliated hospital programs in latest weeks as a part of what it says is a marketing campaign in opposition to antisemitism on school 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.
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