Former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil covered up UNRWA work, US alleges

The U.S. government is accusing former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil of covering up work for multiple organizations in his application to become a permanent resident, the latest development in a case with national free speech implications.

Lawyers for the Department of Justice are throwing new accusations against Khalil, including that he did not disclose on his application to become a permanent resident that he worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) for Palestinian Refugees, had employment with the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut past 2022 and was a member of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group.

Khalil is a legal immigrant, and the Trump administration is detaining him under a rarely used law that allows the secretary of State to declare someone a risk to the United States's interests.

President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made clear that Khalil, who is married to a U.S. citizen, is being targeted over his participation in pro-Palestinian campus protests, raising First Amendment concerns.

Only a judge can order a green-card holder to be deported, and the government is now seeking to prove that Khalil willfully withheld information including the UNWRA work on his application, and if that information was disclosed, it would have affected if he received legal status.

Khalil's case was recently moved to New Jersey, where he was first arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement before being transferred to a facility in Louisiana. His lawyers are fighting for his release, as his wife is set to give birth next month.

“The new deportation grounds are patently weak and pretextual,” Khalil attorney Ramzi Kassem said in a statement to The New York Times. “That the government scrambled to add them at the 11th hour only highlights how its motivation from the start was to retaliate against Mr. Khalil for his protected speech in support of Palestinian rights and lives.”

The Hill has reached out to Khalil’s team for comment.

Khalil’s case was the first in the Trump administration’s crusade against foreign students, declaring those who participated in the pro-Palestinian protests “pro-Hamas” and revoking the student visa of another individual.

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