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Following the Trump administration’s attempts to deport him on “foreign policy” grounds, Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure at Columbia University known for his anti-Israel stance, has recently been allowed to post bond, thus avoiding immediate deportation.
Khalil posted his $1 bond on Thursday afternoon. He has not been released.
The decision to allow Khalil to post bond stemmed from U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz’s ruling in his favor, where Farbiarz questioned the constitutionality of the law that the government sought to enforce in Khalil’s case.
Khalil was accused of deliberately omitting crucial information about his employment history, such as his work at the Syrian office in the British Embassy in Beirut, when applying for permanent residency in the United States. Additionally, he faced criticism for failing to disclose his involvement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and his affiliation with the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil’s removal from the U.S. The provision allows the Secretary of State to deport noncitizens if the secretary determines their presence in the U.S. “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
A pro-Gaza ceasefire tent encampment at Columbia University on April 28, 2024. (Getty Images)
Rubio accused Khalil of participating in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which foster a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”
“Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote.
Khalil has Algerian citizenship through his mother, but was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria.
