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Most of the<\/span> student activists targeted for deportation by the Trump administration for their pro-Palestine speech have beaten back their deportation cases.<\/p>\n Despite being one of the most recognizable faces among the activists, however, Mahmoud Khalil still faces possible re-detention and deportation to Algeria, a country he\u2019s never lived in.<\/p>\n Now, on the heels of a federal court ruling<\/a> that delivered a blow to his case, Khalil is mounting a new fight in immigration court, where he is appealing his deportation order.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Khalil and his legal team requested that the government move the case out of Louisiana, the conservative district where he was held for three months. The legal team asked the court to send the case back to New York, where Khalil was initially detained and where he lives with his wife, Noor Abdalla, and their 10-month-old son Dean, who was born when Khalil was incarcerated.<\/p>\n If they\u2019re successful, the legal team plans to submit new evidence to show the government\u2019s retaliation against Khalil in hopes of dismissing his deportation case, according to the February 13 motion<\/a> exclusively obtained by The Intercept. The motion, filed in immigration court, lays out the inequities of how Khalil\u2019s deportation proceedings were handled last year by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n Khalil\u2019s attorneys hope to use a raft of government documents that have become public since his initial hearings \u2014 documents that emerged after Louisiana courts denied him access to the materials in discovery.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the bare minimum that immigration courts should do, to look at the evidence,\u201d Khalil told The Intercept. \u201cAnd it\u2019s clear by the government\u2019s statements, by ICE and DHS conduct, that these were brought in retaliation to our freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the documents is a newly unsealed March 2025 legal memo<\/a> from the Department of Homeland Security that shows the Trump administration lacked evidence to support its case.<\/p>\n In addition to the documents, Khalil\u2019s legal team drew comparisons to the cases of other student activists who have won relief from the courts. Unlike the cases of recent Tufts University graduate R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk<\/a> and former Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi<\/a>, for instance, the immigration judge presiding over Khalil\u2019s case has refused to rule on whether the Trump administration unconstitutionally targeted Khalil for his activism at Columbia while he was a graduate student<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both \u00d6zt\u00fcrk and Mahdawi relied in part on a landmark ruling<\/a> in a separate case that the government violated the constitutional rights of pro-Palestinian activists, including Khalil, when it detained them last year. In late January, a judge dismissed<\/a> \u00d6zt\u00fcrk\u2019s deportation case and cited the September ruling. Just last week, Mahdawi beat his own deportation case<\/a> after the judge said the government failed to certify the document it used to detain the activist.<\/p>\n \u201cAt least some part of this immigration system is still functioning fairly,\u201d said Khalil, whose legal team hopes to add to the string of victories.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For nearly a year, the Trump administration has attempted to make an example out of Khalil as part of its harsh crackdown on advocacy for Palestinian rights. ICE agents detained Khalil last March at his New York City home and whisked him away to Louisiana.<\/p>\n Immigration detainees are frequently rushed to Louisiana; critics of the transfers say they serve to isolate immigrants from loved ones and communities that could aid them, and also takes advantage of more conservative judges<\/a> who could be friendlier to administration positions. Yet Khalil\u2019s attorneys said the swift nature of the transfer, flying him out of New York within several hours of his detention, was especially punitive.<\/p>\n At the time of his detention and transfer, the Trump administration said Khalil should be deported because his campus activism harmed U.S. foreign policy, justifying the position by conflating his advocacy for Palestine with support for Hamas and antisemitism. The government later added a charge of immigration fraud to Khalil\u2019s case.<\/p>\n Khalil and his legal team have long argued the Trump administration\u2019s case against him was never about immigration, but about silencing Israel\u2019s critics<\/a>. That argument was never considered by Judge Jamee Comans, who declined to consider Khalil\u2019s free speech claims.<\/p>\n Comans also denied Khalil\u2019s application for a waiver that would create another path toward remaining the country; usually the waiver applications are reviewed in a hearing, Khalil\u2019s lawyers said, but Comans denied Khalil\u2019s outright.<\/p>\n Comans upheld the Trump administration\u2019s claims in the case and twice last year ordered Khalil\u2019s deportation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nThe Khalil Exception<\/strong><\/h2>\n