Columbia Activist’s Deportation Ordered by Judge, Lawyers Say

An immigration judge ruled Friday that Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil should be deported because his presence in the US harms the country’s foreign policy interests, his lawyers said in a statement.

The judge ruled in Jena, Louisiana, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a memo that Khalil should be deported even if his beliefs and statements are “otherwise lawful.” Khalil, who led anti-Israel protests as a Columbia graduate student, has emerged as a symbol of the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus protests over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.