Immigration judge rules Mahmoud Khalil to be deported to Syria or Algeria citing green card fraud: court docs

Former Columbia graduate student and anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil will be deported to Syria or Algeria after a new ruling from an immigration judge in Louisiana found he purposefully committed fraud on a green card application, newly filed court documents revealed.

Immigration Judge Jamee Comans rejected three motions filed by Khalil’s lawyers on Sept. 12 — including one in which he sought approval for a waiver to remedy factual omissions on a green card application, which Comans ruled to be intentionally fraudulent.

Khalil neglected to disclose his involvement, association and participation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) on his Form I-485, Comans ruled.

“The evidence shows the Respondent knew of the potential immigration consequences for his involvement in protests organized by varying organizations on campus, including CUAD,” the judge wrote in a ruling shared by Khalil’s lawyers. 

“The waiver was not designed to reward a lack of candor by applicants admitted as immigrant visa holders who then intentionally engage in dishonesty by misrepresenting facts in the application process to adjust status, post entry,” Comans stated plainly in the ruling.

Comans noted that several factors were considered when determining whether Khalil qualified for a waiver to remedy his factual inaccuracies on his residency application — including the fact that he is married and has a young child who was born in April while he was in federal custody.

However, those factors were outweighed by the overt, purposeful omissions and by the Secretary of State deeming his presence in the United States to have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” the ruling stated.

The judge also noted a negative factor in the 30-year-old’s appeal is that he owns no property or business and has never held a job while living in the United States, according to the ruling.

Khalil was ordered to be removed to either Algeria or Syria, where the Palestinian national previously emigrated from in 2022.

Lawyers for Khalil sought a remedy for the ruling from US District Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey, who previously ruled that the Trump administration could not deport the former Ivy League grad.

A letter to the judge revealed that Khalil has 30 days to file an appeal for the Fifth Circuit, which his lawyers wrote “almost never grants stays of removal to noncitizens pursuing petitions for review of [Board of Immigration Appeals] decisions.”

Khalil, who was a noted rabble rouser during the widespread riotous protests at Columbia University and Barnard College in 2023, was first arrested back in March and was later ordered to be released from federal custody in Louisiana in June.