A federal judge on Friday determined that the Trump administration spurred public anger just a month after Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, marking the beginning of a wider crackdown on foreign federal students.
Khalil will need to apply for relief until April 23rd.
The judge said in his ruling that “the court will maintain the removable charge.”
After the judge ruled, Halil told the court, “There is nothing more important than just a legitimate process and basic fairness. Neither of these principles existed today. This is why Trump administrators sent me to this courthouse, 1,000 miles from my family.”
“I hope your urgency towards this is for the thousands of people in this facility,” he added.
Halil, who led a student protest against the war in Gaza at Ivy League School last year, was taken into custody by federal authorities in a university-owned apartment in New York City on March 8th. He has since been detained at the Louisiana Immigration Detention Center.
The Trump administration has publicly claimed it has the authority to deport Halil, a 30-year-old green card holder.
Supporters of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Halil protest outside the courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, with a hearing to be held on March 28 (Kena Betancur / AFP -Getty Images file)
The administration has also repeatedly cited provisions that are rarely called from the 1952 Act (The Immigration and Nationality Act).
Government lawyers also allege that Halil withheld information about his partnership with certain organizations, and did not disclose it in a permanent residence application that was previously employed at the Syrian office of the British Embassy in Beirut.
A federal judge pressed the administration to provide evidence by Wednesday in support of their claims and justifications about Khalil’s deportation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded Wednesday evening with a short memo citing his belief that NBC News would justify his deportation.
Mahmoud Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, will depart after a hearing in Newark, New Jersey on March 28th (Kena Betancur / AFP -Getty Images)
Rubio said that while Khalil’s “past, present or expected beliefs, statements, or associations are legal institutions,” the provisions allow Rubio alone to “personally decide” whether Khalil should be allowed to remain in the country.
Rubio, a Cuban immigrant child, said last month that the State Department cancelled more than 300 student visas and continues to do so.
As of Wednesday, officials had revoked visas for foreign students, many Arab, in at least 29 states, according to NBC news analysis.
A video of the March arrest of RumeysaÖztürk, a student at Tufts University, showed several mediocre DHS agents surrounding her, grabbing her by the wrist and moving into the SUV as she screamed in confusion. Her lawyers allege that she was aiming to write an opinion piece in her school newspaper, which criticized Tufts’ reaction to the war in Gaza.
An international student at the University of Florida was deported later last month after he was arrested and charged with traffic violations, his family and local officials said.
DHS announced a new task force on Wednesday to monitor social media activities of immigrants, including foreign students, due to anti-Semitism. Three sources familiar with the business told NBC News that staff will screen around 1.5 million international students for potential reasons to cancel their visas.
Halil’s arrest urged protests around New York City, including Trump Tower, in Columbia, the epicenter of last year’s demonstration.
A Colombian student who spoke with NBC News since Khalil’s arrest states that the statement has become “too dangerous” at a university that was once known as a venue for challenging authority.
A university spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment on the order to deport Khalil.
The drastic measure against international students is one of several ways that the Trump administration used federal authority to exercise leverage on academic institutions.
The administration has also revoked hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for several universities in recent weeks, including Columbia, Harvard and Princeton, citing complaints about last year’s protests over the war in Gaza.
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