Timeline: The Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil
The court cases, executive orders and public statements relevant to the deportation controversy
With research assistance from James Rushmore
The arrest and pending deportation of former Columbia University international student Mahmoud Khalil ignited a debate on free speech. Did the U.S. government target him for what he said, or is the government justified in saying Khalil is a threat to national security?
Below is a timeline of some key events before and after his arrest, as well as an “Additional Reading” section at the bottom.
Oct. 12, 2023-April 26, 2024
Khalil emerges as a lead negotiator with Columbia University administrators during campus protests as a representative of Columbia United Apartheid Divest. The group’s mission includes “urging Columbia to divest all economic and academic stakes in Israel.” You can read the group’s demands and how it describes itself here.
He often spoke during press conferences, such as the video above from April 26, 2024, in which he says there’s an impasse on “our main demand, which is divestment from the Israeli occupation.” Students and non-students broke into Columbia’s Hamilton Hall building four days later and barricaded themselves inside. Khalil told the BBC that Columbia suspended him but reversed the decision after one day because “after reviewing the evidence, they don't have any evidence to suspend."
Khalil told CNN last year that he chose to do public speaking over participating in student encampments because he feared losing his student visa. He did participate in at least one march on Oct. 12, 2023.
Background on Khalil: He came to the U.S. from Syria in 2022 on a student visa. He received a green card in 2023, meaning he’s a legal resident, after marrying a U.S. citizen, and earned a master’s degree from Columbia in December.
January 29, 2025
President Trump signs an executive order that says, in part:
It shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.
January 30, 2025
The White House releases a “fact sheet” on Trump’s executive order. It characterizes the order as “going on offense to enforce law and order and to protect civil rights,” and notes that after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, “pro-Hamas aliens and left-wing radicals began a campaign of intimidation, vandalism, and violence on the campuses and streets of America.”
The fact sheet also includes this quote from Trump:
“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. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
February 20, 2025
Attorney General Pam Bondi addresses antisemitism and protests on college campuses at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference.
“These students who are here on visas who are threatening our American students need to be kicked out of this country,” she said.
March 8, 2025
Department of Homeland Security officers arrest Khalil at his Columbia University-owned apartment building at 8:30 p.m. He is sent to an ICE detention center in Jena, Louisiana. An attorney for Khalil, Amy Greer, tells the Wall Street Journal that an ICE agent told her by phone that Khalil’s student visa and green card had been revoked.
March 9, 2025
The Department of Homeland Security released the following statement on X:
Note: Although the statement says the arrest occurred March 9, Khalil was taken into custody the previous evening, March 8.
March 10, 2025
Khalil’s attorneys file a petition (see document below) to be returned to New York. It says Kahlil “has been a mediator and negotiator” and argues that the government has violated his First Amendment rights:
“Speech regarding international law, the obligations that the United States and Columbia University have under that law, the human rights of the Palestinian people, and related matters are all topics of public concern clearly protected by the First Amendment.”
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York issues an order that blocks Khali from being deported “until the Court orders otherwise.” Furman orders attorneys to appear before him on March 12 at 11:30 a.m.
Concerns begin to mount that Khalil is being targeted for his speech, a violation of the First Amendment even though he’s not a U.S. citizen. A letter from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression—which often sues government agencies for First Amendment violations—says:
“The statements the government has released suggest its decision may be based on his constitutionally protected speech. This lack of clarity is chilling protected expression, as other permanent residents cannot know whether their lawful speech could be deemed to “align to” a terrorist organization and jeopardize their immigration status.”
March 10, 2025
President posts on Truth Social that Khalil is a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student,” and that more arrests are coming.
March 10, 2025
Supporters of Khalil hold a press conference. Khalil’s arrest “reeks of McCarthyism,” said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“It is beyond the pale. It’s targeted, retaliatory, and an extreme attack on the First Amendment.”
March 11, 2025
House Speaker Mike Johnson supports the arrest and pending deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, saying “this guy was apparently a mastermind” of violent protests at Columbia University.
“If you are on a student visa, and you're in America, and you're an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, you're going home. We're going to arrest your — tail, and we're going to send you home where you belong."
March 11, 2025
Protests break out in New York over Khalil’s arrest, demanding his release. Meanwhile, attorneys meet by video conference. Below is a letter to Furman that reports on the differences between the two sides on venue and jurisdiction.
March 12, 2025
There is no significant change in Khalil’s case after a hearing before U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in New York. Khalil remains in an ICE detention center in Louisiana. Whether he remains there will be determined by Furman.
Khalil’s attorneys want him to return to New York. Justice Department attorneys want him to remain in Louisiana — Khalil was served a notice while in custody Sunday to appear before an immigration judge there on March 27 — or New Jersey, where he was held before being moved to Louisiana. Furman issued an order that gave the government until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday (March 12) to file a motion on the venue. The order sets out a schedule for both sides to file competing arguments through Monday, March 17.
Khalil’s attorneys did score one victory in Furman’s order: they can now confidentially talk to their client with two phone calls of at least one hour each through Thursday, March 13.
Furman’s order also lifted restrictions on electronic access to filings in the case. Not even Khalil’s petition filed Monday had been available on PACER, the U.S. court system’s electronic records service (see letter below from a Brooklyn attorney who objected to this).
March 13, 2025
Protesters take over the Trump Tower lobby. They’re chanting “Fight Nazis, Not Students” in the video above. The NYPD arrests 98 people, hauling them away in zip ties. The protest was led by a progressive Jewish group called Jewish Voice for Peace. They held large, flat signs horizontally so they could be read by people on the floors above them. The messages included “Free Mahmoud, Free Palestine” and “Opposing Fascism is a Jewish Tradition.”
March 13, 2025
Khalil’s attorneys file a motion to dismiss or change the venue, and amend their petition. The revised petition argues that statements made by Trump — including when he was a candidate — and officials in his administration show that the government is targeting Khalil and engaging in a "hostile campaign against Palestinian rights advocacy.” Some examples:
This comment Trump made Wednesday about U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer:
“President Trump described a Jewish lawmaker who had criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as ‘a proud member of Hamas’ and ‘a Palestinian,’ using ‘Palestinian’ as a slur,” the petition says.
Oct. 28, 2023, at a rally in Las Vegas, Trump said he would “terminate the visas of all of those Hamas sympathizers, and we’ll get them off our college campuses, out of our cities, and get them the hell out of our country.”
A March 9, 2025, tweet by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which he says, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
“Mr. Khalil’s detention is punitive as it bears no ‘reasonable relation’ to any legitimate government purpose,” the petition argues.
Below are the amended petition and the motion to dismiss, as well as some other documents filed Wednesday and Thursday.
March 19, 2025
Furman rules that Khalil’s case be transferred to federal district court in New Jersey. The judge notes that Khalil was being detained there when his lawyers filed their first petition.
April 12, 2025
An immigration judge in Louisiana rules that Homeland Security has the authority to deport Khalil, but his case is far from over. A restraining order that prohibits the government from deporting Khalil remains in effect while arguments over whether he can stay in the country play out in federal district court in New Jersey.
The ruling in Louisiana merely upholds Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s authority to deport any noncitizen.
The [Department of State] has met its burden to establish removability by clear and convincing evidence," Judge Jamee Comans writes in her order.
Additional Reading
Racket News is compiling additional records and resources as Khalil’s case plays out in court, including relevant court cases and government policy records
ICE memos
In 2017, the Knight First Amendment Institute filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to get records on the first Trump administration’s “extreme vetting” program to screen immigrants, refugees, and people seeking visas. Here’s a link to access all documents in the case. Among those records are two ICE memos that Knight published in November 2023. The memos were written as that policy was being developed.
Supreme Court Court Cases
Bridges v. Wixon (1945). The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the government could not deport an Australian immigrant because he was a communist. Middle Tennessee State University’s Free Speech Center has a good overview of the 1945 case here.
Dennis v. United States (1951). The court upholds the Smith Act of 1940, which criminalized anyone who “organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons.” The ruling also upholds the conviction of 11 communists.
Yates vs. United States (I957). In a 6-1 decision, the court limits the power of the Smith Act. The decision says convictions must show people advocated illegal conduct.
Appreciate the fact based timeline and nuanced reporting here. Mahmoud’s mob has just taken over Trump tower. The overarching issue is about civilization, not free speech.
Why should we import Islamist foreigners who orchestrate riots that put American citizens in danger? Why must we allow them to stay after they openly state support for terrorists and their wish to destroy our civilization? They use our freedoms against us to gain power, then will destroy our freedoms once they are able to. The Middle East, Europe, and the Ivy League are cautionary tales.
If Khalil had been honest on his green card application, it would have been denied. Are we declaring that if one lies in order to get approved, approval cannot be revoked?
A reminder from John Adams, our second POTUS: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."