Recent Court Documents Allege Misconduct in Mahmoud Khalil’s Immigration Case

Last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents snatched Mahmoud Khalil from his home in Manhattan and quickly spirited him away to a detention center in Louisiana, hundreds of miles from his then pregnant wife. From the beginning, the Trump administration targeted Mr. Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, for speaking out for Palestinian human rights, and criticizing Israel and U.S. support for Israel.

What was concealed then was that the administration had already put the wheels in motion to try to quickly punish, deport, and make an example of Mr. Khalil in violation of his due process rights. Documents published in a motion by Mr. Khalil’s legal team, which includes the NYCLU, show how administration officials warped and weaponized the immigration court system to try to quickly expel Mr. Khalil from the country. They pursued this outcome while trampling on Mr. Khalil’s rights and providing another chilling example of President Donald Trump’s unquenchable thirst for executive power.

This problem is bigger than Mr. Khalil. The Trump administration has used the immigration courts to go after many young people who have spoken up for Palestinian rights. Students like Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi simply exercised their First Amendment rights and highlighted the importance of academic freedom and open discourse. In response, Trump vilified and targeted them for their speech.

Mr. Khalil’s case is moving on two different tracks: He’s challenging the Trump administration’s attempts to deport him in both federal and immigration courts. But the new filing reveals that, with regard to his immigration court case, Mr. Khalil’s fate was all but sealed even before he appeared before a judge.

Unlike in federal court, immigration court judges serve at the pleasure of the executive branch. Under Trump, immigration judges are facing immense, direct pressure from the White House to order as many people deported as possible, or face career consequences.

“We were told to facilitate deportation,” said one former immigration judge in last month’s court filing, describing the administration’s attitude towards immigration courts in general. “Due process is dead in immigration courts.”

In Mr. Khalil’s federal case, we’ve secured some important victories, including when a federal judge ordered his release in June 2025. But in his immigration case, judges have repeatedly found he can be deported because of his protected speech, without even considering the serious constitutional concerns raised by Mr. Khalil’s case.

The crux of our legal argument is that Mr. Khalil – who has never been accused, charged, or convicted of any crime – was ripped from his home purely as retaliation for his political speech. The new documents bolster this claim in multiple ways. They show, for example, that two days before Mr. Khalil was arrested, the FBI received an anonymous tip claiming that Mr. Khalil had called for “violence on behalf of Hamas.”

Nearly two weeks later, the FBI closed its investigation into the tip and determined that Mr. Khalil “does not warrant further FBI investigation.” Despite this, the Trump administration continued at breakneck pace to try to deport Mr. Khalil, based on the utterly false and unsubstantiated premise that he “led activities aligned to Hamas.”

Mr. Khalil was far from the only one targeted by the Trump administration’s mad dash to deport students and scholars tied to pro-Palestine protests. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Office launched a “Tiger Team” in March 2025 to investigate a lengthy list of noncitizen protesters. The list came from multiple sources, but primarily relied on two highly controversial organizations, Canary Mission and Betar. The latter recently closed its offices in New York after a settlement with State Attorney General Tish James who found that Betar had intimidated and even assaulted pro-Palestine advocates.

Shortly after these organizations put Mr. Khalil on ICE’s radar, agents put him under surveillance. Then Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a memo absurdly claiming that Mr. Khalil’s constitutionally protected speech compromised “a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.” That memo sealed Mr. Khalil’s fate and ICE promptly moved to detain him.

After ICE arrested Mr. Khalil, federal authorities quickly flew him to an immigration detention center in Louisiana. The facility was more than 1,000 miles from Mr. Khalil’s pregnant wife who would later give birth to their son while Mr. Khalil was still in detention.

Mr. Khalil’s immigration case was assigned to Acting Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans. The filing asserts that Judge Comans was “hand-picked” by Trump administration officials to hear Mr. Khalil’s case.

At a rushed hearing in Mr. Khalil’s immigration case in April last year, Judge Comans read a pre-written decision that held that Mr. Khalil was deportable. She didn’t allow Mr. Khalil to obtain and present evidence before ruling on the case. Former immigration judge Dana Leigh Marks called Comans’ decision to immediately rule Mr. Khalil removable “highly unusual.” Comans was promoted to a senior leadership role at the immigration agency shortly after ordering Mr. Khalil’s removal.

Mr. Khalil’s case continued its strange and seemingly predetermined trajectory after he appealed Comans’ decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) in October. The average time it takes for the BIA to rule on a case like Mr. Khalil’s is more than two years. But the BIA ruled that Mr. Khalil can be deported just nine days after the legal team finished submitting its written arguments. In another startling irregularity, at least three BIA judges recused themselves from Mr. Khalil’s appeal, which former immigration judges and members of the BIA have confirmed heavily suggests they had previously and improperly advised Comans on how to rule in his case.

The new evidence in our filing repeatedly suggests the immigration judge and BIA had already decided to order Mr. Khalil’s deportation before he ever had a chance to make his case. Not only is it unjust, it’s a direct threat to Mr. Khalil’s right to speak out. That should concern everyone who cares about their First Amendment right to say things the government doesn’t like.

Fortunately, Mr. Khalil remains free. In May we won a stay in his federal case, which means the government can’t re-detain or deport him while his case proceeds to the Supreme Court. In light of the new evidence in our motion, we’ve asked the BIA to re-open Mr. Khalil’s immigration case and terminate the proceedings against him.

Join us in seeking justice for Mr. Khalil. Trump’s attempts to bend the U.S. immigration courts to his will are staggering, and Mr. Khalil’s case shows the extraordinary lengths the White House will go to mold the courts in the president’s image. Nevertheless, Mr. Khalil is undeterred and has vowed to keep fighting, and so will we.

Editor’s Note: Mahmoud Khalil is represented by the NYCLU, Van Der Hout LLP, Dratel & Lewis, the Center for Constitutional Rights, CLEAR, Washington Square Legal Services, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of New Jersey, and the ACLU of Louisiana.