Do non-citizens have right to free speech? Federal court to weigh in.

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A federal court in Newark could determine whether the United States can deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate involved in pro-Palestinian protests, in what experts say could be a landmark case on the civil rights of non-citizens.

But first, Khalil will have to fend off a challenge to try and get his case moved out of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

The Department of Homeland Security argued in court Friday that the case should be sent to Louisiana, where Khalil is being held, and where any appeals are likely to end up in a more conservative-leaning court.

Protests were held outside the courthouse in support of Khalil, one of a growing number of legal residents in the U.S. who are being targeted for deportation over pro-Palestinian speech or activity. The case has pitted Trump Administration officials, who say they can deport noncitizens they deem “hostile” to the country or its foreign policy, against civil rights advocates who warn that the government’s actions pose sweeping threats to free speech and the right to protest.

The case — deemed “exceptional” by Southern District of New York Judge Jesse Furman, who ruled the case should be heard in New Jersey — stems from Khalil’s March 8 arrest and detention by immigration agents who informed him his green card was being revoked.

“We’re in court today because the U.S. government, after arresting our client Mahmoud Khalil, spirited him overnight to Louisiana in order to avoid the jurisdiction of the courts of New York and New Jersey,” Baher Azmy, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said at a press conference after the hearing Friday morning.

The case against Khalil

Khalil was detained in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on what he calls antisemitic and anti-American campus protests. Khalil, a Palestinian born in a refugee camp in Syria, was a spokesperson and negotiator last year for pro-Palestinian demonstrators against war in Gaza at Columbia.

He was arrested in the lobby of his student apartment building in New York City after returning from iftar, the fast-breaking meal during Ramadan, with his pregnant wife, who is a U.S. citizen. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told him his green cards was revoked. They detained Khalil at the Elizabeth Detention Facility in New Jersey for several hours before transferring him to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Facility.

The Department of Homeland security has charged Khalil under a rarely-used provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which states that the Secretary of State can move to deport any noncitizen whose presence “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

Administration officials say Khalil organized disruptive protests where "pro-Hamas propaganda” was distributed and where Jewish students faced harassment. Khalil’s lawyers have said that he does not support Hamas, while fellow students wrote letters of support to the court saying Khalil personally intervened to protect and support Jewish students at Columbia. Jewish students also participated in the protests against Israel's military operations in Gaza.

The U.S. government also has alleged Khalil withheld information on his application that he worked for UNRWA, a UN relief agency, saying that should be grounds for deportation. In a statement, his legal team called the allegations “completely meritless.” They say his internship for UNRWA was approved by Columbia for credit and listed on his application. An allegation that he worked beyond 2022 at the British Embassy in Beirut was also “inaccurate” and “irrelevant,” they said.

Profound consequences

Furman ruled that Khalil's case must be heard in the location where his attorneys had filed the suit challenging his detention under the law. Government attorneys are trying to get it transferred to Western District of Louisiana, where he is currently detained.

On Friday, while the hearing on the proper venue takes place, members of Khalil's legal team will hold a press conference outside the courthouse on his case. The outcome of Khalil’s case in New Jersey could have profound consequences for anyone the White House tries to deport, they say.

The administration has targeted other scholars for deportation over pro-Palestinian speech that it equates with support for Hamas or terrorism. They include a Korean-American student at Columbia who participated in protests; a Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow who supported Palestinians in social media posts; and a Tufts University student who co-authored a piece published in The Tufts Daily, the school's student newspaper, in favor of divestment divest from Israeli corporations.

Trump has also announced through an executive order that anyone found to bear "hostile attitudes" toward the country or to advocate for "designated foreign terrorists" could be subject to deportation.

"The United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security," the Jan. 20 order states.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, one of several civil rights advocacy groups representing Khalil, wrote that Khalil's detention represents a "dangerous" attempt to stymie free speech.

“If judges allow this to stand, it will give the Trump administration — and all future administrations — sweeping power to deport millions of people whose opinions they disagree with or find objectionable,” wrote Simon McCormack and Veronica Salama. "No president can arrest, detain, or deport anyone for disagreeing with the government."

U.S. officials say they have the authority to revoke visas of individuals they argue shouldn't have been let into the country in the first place.

"This is not about free speech," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a press briefing. "This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card."