(NewsNation) — The Trump administration on Thursday will make its case to deport pro-Palestine activist and recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
During a Thursday morning hearing, the federal government is expected to expand on its newest accusations against Khalil, who was arrested earlier this month and taken to an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detention center.
Khalil holds legal permanent resident status in the United States.
The federal government now accuses Khalil of lying on his green card application. Khalil also allegedly lied about his involvement with a Columbia University coalition of anti-Israel student organizations.
The Justice Department said Khalil failed to mention he worked in the Syria office of the British embassy in Lebanon.
They also accuse Khalil of being a member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, which UNRWA denies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended Khalil’s arrest, writing on X earlier this month: “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
ICE arrests students connected to protests
Since then, ICE agents have arrested Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia student and lawful permanent resident from South Korea, and Georgetown University professor and Indian national Badar Khan Suri.
Both were accused of supporting Hamas, but the government hasn’t shown any evidence to support those accusations.
Attorneys for Yunseo Chung filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and other top officials alleging government overreach for seeking Chung’s deportation. The complaint comes after Trump said the arrest of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil would be the “first of many to come.”
Just this week, ICE agents in Boston sparked outrage after Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national, was arrested by plainclothes agents outside her apartment Tuesday.
Video obtained by The Associated Press appears to show six people, their faces covered, taking away Ozturk’s phone as she yells and is handcuffed.
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to NewsNation’s request for comment on cases involving those claiming to be targeted. They have issued previous statements about the arrests.
NewsNation’s Jeff Arnold and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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