Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead the pro-Palestine demonstration while being detained this month, argued that he should be deported to help prevent the spread of anti-Semitism, invoking rarely used laws.
Mr. Khalil, a permanent resident of the law, was detained in Louisiana and quickly responded that the government was retaliating against its client in order to criticize Israel and promote constitutional protection of Palestinian rights.
Last week, the government quietly added new charges to the case against Mr. Khalil, saying he deliberately failed to disclose his membership in several organizations, including a UN agency that helped Palestinian refugees when he applied to become a permanent U.S. resident last March. It said he has not disclosed what he has done for the UK government after 2022.
The Trump administration appears to be using the new allegations, partly because it avoids the First Amendment issue raised in Mr. Khalil’s case. On Sunday, in an application against his release, Justice Department lawyers argued that the new allegations reduced the importance of attention to Mr. Khalil’s right to free speech.
“Khalil’s First Amendment charge was Red Herring,” they wrote, adding that his deportation had a “independent basis” given the new charges.
“The new reason for deportation is clearly weakness and excuse,” said Ramzi Kassem, a co-director of the City University Law Clinic in New York City. “The government scrambles to join them in the 11th hour, only highlighting how its motive from the outset was to retaliate against Mr. Kalil in support of the protected speech of Palestinian rights and lives.”
Mr. Harrier’s lawyers are expected to argue that the new allegations are an excuse for continuing retaliation for his client’s speech while his home continues to be detained. They are fighting for his release in New Jersey federal court. The wife of Mr. Khalil, a U.S. citizen living in New York City, is expected to be born next month.
New allegations listed in the Department of Homeland Security documents include Mr. Harrier’s failure to disclose his work on separatist separation from the United Nations agency or Columbia University, a student group that conducted pro-Palestine demonstrations at the school. Mr. Khalil received his master’s degree from Colombia in December.
The government also said Mr. Khalil failed to continue employment in his Syrian office in Beirut, Lebanon after 2022.
Mr. Khalil’s efforts to secure the release of his attorney in New Jersey are separated from the Immigration Court lawsuit (currently being held in Louisiana), which could lead to his deportation. However, in order to expel Mr. Khalil on the basis of the new allegations, the government must convince the immigration judge that anyone who fails to disclose the information will make a difference in his chance of obtaining a legal permanent residence status.
The Trump administration also grounds its original grounds for the detention of Mr. Harrier, a slight amount of law that says the Secretary of State can file an expulsion lawsuit against non-citizens whose presence in the United States can be considered a threat to the country’s foreign policy agenda.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Khalil of participating in anti-Semitic events, referring to protests on Colombia’s campus, and the secretary said students expressed support for Hamas.
Mr. Harrier’s lawyers denied that their client had promoted Hamas and more generally believed that their client’s speech was protected by the First Amendment. They are expected to challenge the constitutionality of the law that Mr. Rubio initially defended Mr. Harrier’s detention.
New York federal judge Jesse Furman, who reviewed Mr. Harrier’s case last week, said the first and fifth amendments raised in the case require careful review.
“All Americans are entitled to basic constitutional principles that are required by appropriate legality,” he wrote.
