MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
For more than six months, the Trump administration has been trying to deport Mahmoud Khalil. He's the former Columbia University grad student who ICE agents arrested back in March when the government started cracking down on pro-Palestinian student activists. An immigration judge in Louisiana has now ordered him deported on charges that he committed fraud on his green card application. Camille's (ph) - Khalil's lawyers are promising to fight this. His case highlights how aggressively the government is continuing to try to expel foreign-born students for their political activism. For the latest, I want to bring in NPR's Adrian Florido, and Adrian, tell me a little bit more about what exactly this judge in Louisiana ruled.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Well, Mary Louise, the judge is Jamee Comans, and she ordered Khalil deported either to Algeria, where he holds a passport, or to Syria, where he was born and where he grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp. This does not mean that Khalil will be immediately deported or even soon. There's still likely a long legal fight ahead. But the judge, in ordering him deported, relied on the government's accusation that Khalil purposely left information off of his green card application last year, specifically some work that he'd done with the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians and his involvement in a pro-Palestinian activist group at Colombia. His lawyers have long said that these claims are bogus.
KELLY: And what are they saying today? How are they responding to this deportation order?
FLORIDO: Well, in a statement, Khalil said that it was no surprise. He and his lawyers have always said that these fraud charges are a pretext and that they're really targeting him for his political activism, which they say is unconstitutional. Now, the Trump administration first arrested Khalil back in March, claiming that his pro-Palestinian activism was antisemitic and that he was a Hamas terrorist sympathizer - all claims that Khalil denies and that the government has never actually provided evidence for. Now, I spoke with Baher Azmy, one of his attorneys, today.
BAHER AZMY: They're making up charges to remove him because they disagree with his dissent from U.S. foreign policy.
FLORIDO: You might remember, Mary Louise, that Khalil spent more than three months in a detention center in Louisiana before his lawyers were able to get him released on bail in June.
KELLY: I do indeed remember. OK, so timing here, you said this could be tied up in courts for a while. How quickly might he be deported?
FLORIDO: Well, it's hard to say, assuming that he is ultimately ordered, you know, deported by a court...
KELLY: Right.
FLORIDO: ...Because his lawyers are promising a long legal fight. His case is actually playing out in two different court systems - in this immigration court, where the government has been moving aggressively to try to expel him and where it has succeeded in getting this order against him this week, but also in a New Jersey federal court, where he's challenging his deportation on claims that the government is retaliating for his activism and violating his right to free speech. The judge in that federal case issued an order months ago prohibiting the government from deporting Khalil while he considers those constitutional claims, and that could take a long time. In a statement to NPR, Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, reiterated today the government's claims that Khalil advocated for violence and supported terrorists, and she said that he should not be in this country.
KELLY: And just briefly, Adrian, catch us up on some of the other cases. There have been quite a few other high-profile cases, pro-Palestinian student protesters detained for campus activism.
FLORIDO: Yeah, they're all in various stages of litigation. All of these students are fighting their deportations on free speech grounds. They've had a lot of success in federal courts so far, but there are big questions as the cases make their way through the federal court system. Will appeals courts ultimately protect their right to protest or allow the Trump administration to deport them?
KELLY: NPR's Adrian Florido - thanks, Adrian.
FLORIDO: Thanks, Mary Louise.
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