(José Niño, Headline USA) A U.S. District Judge extended the order of a pro-Palestinian activist’s deportation this Wednesday. Meanwhile, a Middle East publication has reported that the activist, Mahmoud Khalil, might be a foreign intelligence asset.
At a hearing in New York’s Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman extended his order to block Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation order from earlier this week.
In the meantime, Furman is determining if Khalil’s arrest was unconstitutional.
Mahmoud Khalil is a Syrian-born Palestinian refugee who is completing his graduate studies at Columbia University and is vocal about his support for the Palestinian people’s resistance against the state of Israel.
On Sunday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Khalil as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus protests that are deemed antisemitic and an alleged threat to Jewish students on campus.
The following day, in a post on Donald Trump‘s Truth Social platform, the U.S. president described Khalil as a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” and revealed that his arrest was “the first arrest of many to come”.
“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump stated.
Khalil was arrested at his Columbia University apartment after ICE agents informed him that his green card had been revoked. He was then transferred to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana.
The Trump administration has accused Khalil of allegedly engaging in antisemitic activity and supporting Palestinian resistance organization Hamas — which the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization. Khalil was accused of reportedly organized protests that disrupted classes and intimidated Jewish American students.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that Khalil is being targeted under a law allowing the Secretary of State to deem individuals “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America”. The Department of Homeland Security stated that Khalil’s arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” and alleged that Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization”.
Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller stated on social media platform X that “Those who sympathize with terrorism are unwelcome on our shores. They will be denied entry or sent home.”
America exercises sole and exclusive control over admission to our country.
We are a sovereign nation.
Admission is a privilege — an extraordinary privilege. Not a right.
Those who sympathize with terrorism are unwelcome on our shores.
They will be denied entry or sent home.
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) March 10, 2025
Khalil’s attorneys have filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the legality of his arrest and detention. They argue that his arrest was in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment rights. In addition, they argued that the transfer to Louisiana was unconstitutional and there is no evidence of Khalil providing support to terrorist groups.
According to the Middle East Eye, Khalil previously worked as a local manager for the Syria Chevening Program, a prestigious UK government international scholarship program, in addition to the Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund.
Former British diplomat Andrew Waller, who was a policy advisor at the Syria Office while Khalil worked there from 2018 to 2022, told MEE that the Trump administration’s narrative of Khalil was defamatory and false.
“He went through a vetting process to get the job and was cleared to work on sensitive issues for the British government,” Waller asserted.
“It’s outright defamation what Trump has done. Mahmoud is an extremely kind and conscientious person and he was loved by his colleagues at the Syria Office,” he added. “You couldn’t find anyone who’d say a bad word about him, he was very good at his job.”
But Khalil isn’t the only foreign intelligence asset involved in the dispute. According to Mint Press News reporter Alan MacLeod, Khalil’s dean, Dr. Keren Yarhi-Milo, is a former Israeli military intelligence officer.
“Yarhi-Milo played a significant role in drumming up public concern about a supposed wave of intolerable anti-Semitism sweeping over the campus … Before entering academia, Dr. Yarhi-Milo served as an officer and an intelligence analyst with the Israeli Defense Forces,” Macleod wrote in an article that was published Tuesday.
Given that she was recruited into the intelligence services because of her ability to speak Arabic fluently, her job likely entailed surveilling the Arab population.
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald was highly critical of Khalil’s arrest, describing it as “an indisputable proposition that the Supreme Court has for 200 years affirmed.” He also highlighted that many conservatives have “abandoned their defense of free speech” when it comes to criticism of Israel.
Ann Coulter, known for her provocative conservative hardline anti-immigration views, surprisingly questioned the arrest and potential deportation of Mahmoud Khalil.
Coulter posted on X: “There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport. But, unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?”
There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport, but, unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment? https://t.co/PJxc1FQafU
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 10, 2025
Khalil remains in ICE detention in Louisiana after a procedural hearing in New York.
Nearly 100 protesters were arrested on March 13 after a sit-in at Trump Tower in Manhattan demanding Khalil’s release.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
