Updated April 10, 2025 at 18:31 PM ET
When pressed for evidence about why activist Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by immigration authorities last month, the Department of Homeland Security shared a two-page memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that accuses the Columbia University graduate student of participating in "antisemitic protests and disruptive activities."
That memo is at the heart of the Trump administration's case against Khalil, according to his attorneys.
The memo, which was undated, was released by Khalil's legal team on Thursday, the day after the Trump administration submitted it in an immigration court filing. It does not accuse Khalil of any crime. But Rubio writes that Khalil's continued presence in the U.S. would have "potentially serious adverse foreign consequences, and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest."
Khalil's lawyers say the government has provided no additional evidence to explain the basis for Rubio's conclusion.
"Two pages. That's it," said Marc Van Der Hout, one of Khalil's lawyers. "There is no there there at all."
Khalil and his lawyers also dispute the charge of antisemitism.
"What is the antisemitism?" Van Der Hout said during a Zoom meeting with reporters on Thursday. "It is criticizing Israel and the United States for the slaughter that is going on in Gaza, in Palestine. That's what this case is about."
Lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security released their evidence against Khalil, who is a lawful permanent resident, after an immigration judge in Louisiana ordered them to do so at a hearing on Tuesday.
The Trump administration is trying to deport the 30-year-old, who played a prominent role in campus protests last year. Judge Jamee Comans said she will rule on Friday whether Khalil can be deported or whether he must be freed. Whichever side loses is likely to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Khalil's case has become a crucial test for how far the Trump administration can go to deport noncitizen protesters. Khalil insists he was expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza, while administration officials accuse him of providing support to Hamas terrorism.
Khalil's legal case is proceeding on multiple tracks. While an immigration judge considers the evidence against him, Khalil's lawyers are also challenging his March 8 detention in federal court in New Jersey.
After Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Khalil on March 8 and shipped him to Louisiana, Rubio said he had revoked Khalil's green card.
Rubio relied on a rarely used statute from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that authorizes the secretary of state to personally order the deportation of people whose presence in the U.S. the secretary believes "would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States."
But after the Cold War ended, lawmakers modified the law to protect "beliefs, statements, or associations" that are "lawful within the United States," and raised the standard for deportation to cases in which the foreigner's presence in the U.S. would "compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest."
In the memo, Rubio concedes that Khalil's activities would be "otherwise lawful" but says that they nevertheless "undermine U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States."
But Khalil's lawyers say Rubio has not shown any evidence to support that conclusion.
"His determination, quote unquote, has absolutely nothing to do with foreign policy," Van Der Hout said. "What does he talk about? He talks about First Amendment activity in the United States and the effect on people in the United States."
Days after Khalil was arrested and detained, Homeland Security officials charged him with several additional civil violations. They allege he withheld information on his 2024 green-card application, including his work history with a United Nations relief agency and his involvement with a pro-Palestinian activist group at Columbia University.
Khalil's lawyers deny those charges. The government filed additional documents on Wednesday in support of those charges, Van Der Hout said, "but it is zero to do with the foreign policy charge. And there is zero support for the government's allegations about any misrepresentation."
Free speech advocates argue that the administration is violating the U.S. Constitution by targeting immigrants for their activism and their political beliefs. Khalil and several other students and scholars who have been detained have challenged their arrests on constitutional grounds.
Copyright 2025 NPR
