The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued an order of removal for Mahmoud Khalil after it denied his effort to toss his deportation case.
Khalil said in a statement that the decision is not a surprise. “I have committed no crime. I have broken no law. The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine — and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it,” he said. “My family is here. My life is here. I reject any attempt to intimidate me out of my home based on lies and ideological attacks.”
He added that the decision is “not justice,” but is “another attempt to retaliate against me. I will continue fighting for my rights in court, and I will not be deterred – for me, my family, and all immigrants in this country who want to speak out against injustice.”
The immigration board ruled in alignment with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that Khalil was a threat to U.S. foreign policy, The Hill reports.
“In all my decades as an immigration lawyer, I have never seen such a baseless and politically motivated decision. The BIA’s decision has absolutely no support in the record, violates a federal court order, and we’ll be fighting it until the end,” said Khalil’s attorney, Marc Van Der Hout. “Federal courts have already agreed that Mahmoud was targeted for his speech, and there is likely much more evidence of the government’s unlawful retaliation that has yet to come to light. This is a clear continuation of the administration’s retaliation against Mahmoud for exercising his First Amendment rights.”
