Mahmoud Khalil Continues to Have a Deportation Block

During the protest at Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil was a negotiator for the students. After the protest, he raised a red flag to the Trump administration. 

He feels he has been a target for deportation since March 2025 by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the pro-Palestinian protest. He was detained and sent to an immigration jail until June 2025, as reported to the public by his wife, Noor Abdalla. 

Khalil is not alone in this case; besides his supporters in protests, he also had federal judges blocking the administration from deporting him. 

Noor Abdalla is a U.S. citizen and Khalil’s wife, who was there when he was arrested and posted the video footage. Khalil told Abdalla to “call Amy”, who is one of his lawyers, Amy Greer.

Greer told Abdalla to get the names of the agents taking Khalil and the location, which was heard in the video. The video also shows that information was not fully disclosed by the agents, which led to suspicion and worry.

Democracy Now released a video of protestors who started to chain themselves to the gate of the university, demanding his release. Students felt that the school did not care for them at all, as evidenced by their quickness to let foreign students get arrested. 

The administration claims that on the green card application that was submitted, there were some answers that raised questions. This led to an investigation of his connection with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and the British Embassy in Beirut. 

Khalil was accused by the Trump administration of abusing his green card because he refused to disclose information about his work. Khalil’s lawyers argue otherwise, according to BBC News, the case cannot go as far without proof. 

The United States government placed travel restrictions on Khalil after his arrest, which were lifted in mid-October by United States Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey Michael Hammer, as mentioned by the Courthouse News Service. 

The judge believes Khalil is not a flight risk; he just must inform ICE ahead of time of any travel plans, according to NBC News. 

Before inauguration day, President Donald Trump had clear intentions of what would happen to foreign students with pro-Palestine protests.

“When I’m president, we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals, and if you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or anti-Semitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you, you’ll be out of that school,” Trump said at a 2024 rally.

View this post on Instagram

Khalil stated during an interview that his situation is an attempt by the administration to silence his First Amendment rights, raising concerns about when government action crosses the line into suppression of speech. 

Kate Olson is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, majoring in versatile voice and general business. She understands the issues happening with Khalil, but she also realizes the laws that are hurting people. 

“I think that the line is when it is harmful, when it is counterproductive to the good of society,” Olson says. “That’s the point of our laws, how can we all exist as people in the same place?”

According to ABC News, Khalil mentioned that the administration has been trying to prevent the court from seeing his case, as they have no case. The administration wants to be in control of the process, but they know they can’t. 

“The Trump administration wanted to make an example out of me, so that anyone who would dare to speak against this administration, and speak against Israel’s crimes and in Palestine, they would be punished,” said Khalil to BBC News.

Chloe Moser is also a student at UWM as a junior social work major. She compares people getting targeted for their skin colors to 1940s Germany. How people are getting deported, and sometimes they do not go back to where they’re from, but wherever they land. 

Moser’s thoughts about free speech are that this has been happening for over 10 years, with people being censored. It is scary to be in a world where you can’t say anything without risking your life or others.

“It’s so f-ing scary and jarring and heartbreaking, just it’s so disgusting and scary in terms of free speech,” Moser said. “I think that I kind of knew going into this administration that was their goal, but to see how effectively they’ve been able to execute that is just really scary.”

As the world changes, so does the view from a child’s eye to an adult’s eye. One part of that is paying attention to what happens in the world and sometimes experiencing things firsthand.

“I should be excited to grow up in the world,” Olson said. “I should be excited to be an adult, and I’m not. It’s deeply terrifying to not know and to see the hate in the world.”