What To Know About Mahmoud Khalil, and Why His Green Card Was Revoked

Buried in the trove of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in his first weeks in office was a directive linked to last year’s campus protests over the Israel-Gaza war.

The order called for the revocation of student visas for individuals suspected of sympathizing with Hamas. “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump’s executive order said.

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On Saturday night, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) followed through on Trump’s threat, detaining Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist at New York City’s Columbia University, where pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year became a national lightning rod amid a debate about the Middle East conflict.  Khalil led negotiations between protesters and university officials last spring, and graduated from Columbia with a master’s degree in December. 

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump wrote on Monday afternoon, personally taking credit for Khalil’s arrest. “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country—never to return again.” 

Khalil’s situation immediately drew international attention because of the reason he was detained, and because, according to his lawyer Amy Greer, he holds a green card, which allows individuals to live and work permanently in the United States.

A habeas corpus petition was filed on Khalil’s behalf challenging the legality of his arrest and detention. He got some reprieve on Monday evening, when a judge from the Southern District of New York ruled that he “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise.”

Khalil’s wife, who is eight months pregnant, is a U.S. citizen and was also threatened with arrest, according to Greer. Khalil is currently being held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, La., according to an ICE database.

Khalil’s arrest comes just days after Trump announced he would revoke $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University, accusing the school of not doing enough to prevent antisemitism on campus. To critics, the move is intended to silence political speech critical of U.S. foreign policy.

In a statement, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” and linked his arrest to Trump’s executive order. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later confirmed on social media that the Trump Administration “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” 

A petition demanding Khalil’s release has already generated more than 1.3 million signatures or notes of support. Protests are also planned in New York City on Monday to demand his release.

Here’s what to know about Khalil’s case, and why his green card status suggests a potential shift in U.S. immigration policy under the Trump administration:

Can a green card holder be deported?

While green card holders enjoy many of the same rights as U.S. citizens, they can still face deportation under certain conditions, typically for criminal behavior or violations of immigration law, says Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired immigration law professor at Cornell Law School.

Foreign nationals can also lose their visas for endorsing or being associated with terrorist groups, but only if the government can provide material evidence.

Greer, Khalil’s lawyer, says there is no indication that her client has committed any crime or violated the terms of his residency, and that the Trump administration appears to be targeting him for his political activism and vocal opposition to Israeli policies. Immigration law experts note that deporting a green card holder solely for their political beliefs would likely violate the First Amendment, which protects free speech and the right to protest.

Yale-Loehr pointed to a Ragbir v. Homan, a 2018 decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that held that a non-citizen with a final removal order could not be removed if the removal was only because they were retaliating against their free speech.

Revoking a green card is also quite rare, and typically requires a hearing before an immigration judge. The process is generally lengthy and requires clear evidence of wrongdoing, and given the immense backlogs in immigration courts, it could take years before he gets a hearing before an immigration judge. 

If Khalil’s green card is ultimately revoked as a result of his activism, immigration experts say it would mark a disturbing shift in how the U.S. government interprets the scope of its power over lawful permanent residents. 

The burden of proof in deportation cases

In any deportation case, the burden of proof rests with the government to demonstrate that the individual has violated U.S. immigration laws. Typically, this would involve criminal convictions or other serious legal violations. In Khalil’s case, the government would need to prove that his actions go beyond protected political speech and that his associations or activities pose a genuine national security threat. His legal team maintains that there is no legitimate grounds for revoking his green card or detaining him.

“The government would need to prove that he’s done something more than just speaking out, like offering material support to Hamas,” Yale-Loehr says. “That would be a ground of deportability.”

“They can’t deport only for free speech advocacy,” he adds, “but if they were able to prove that he offered material support to Hamas by donating to their cause or something, then that’s obviously concerning.”

As of now, it remains unclear how the Trump administration plans to justify the revocation of Khalil’s green card and deportation. 

Tom Homan, the Trump Administration’s border czar, told Fox Business on Monday that federal authorities “absolutely can” deport someone who is in the country legally: “I mean, did he violate the terms of his visa? Did he violate the terms of his residency here, you know, committing crimes, attacking Israeli students, locking down buildings, destroying property? Absolutely, any resident alien who commits a crime is eligible for deportation,” Homan added.  

Trump’s expanding use of executive power

The Khalil case is part of a broader trend in which the Trump administration has sought to expand its use of immigration law to remove individuals deemed to be a threat to the United States. The effort is in line with Trump’s actions from his first term, which included creating a task force to review whether individuals had lied on their immigration forms.

In 2020, Trump’s Justice Department also created a new “Denaturalization Section” in its immigration office to identify naturalized immigrants to strip of their citizenship rights. Of the 228 denaturalization cases the DOJ has filed since 2008, about 40% were brought during Trump’s four years in office, the New York Times reported at the time.

The Khalil case signals that the Trump administration is willing to employ those powers far more aggressively than it did during Trump’s first term, a shift that could have far-reaching implications for civil rights and free speech in America.

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