Based on false retaliatory allegations, ruling is latest manipulation and weaponized of Trump immigration system to censor speech

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 17, 2025

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NEWARK, N.J. – Following the Trump administration’s latest effort to weaponize the immigration system to silence Mahmoud Khalil for his advocacy in support of Palestinian human rights, Mr. Khalil’s legal team today submitted a letter to the federal court in New Jersey overseeing his civil rights case. The letter to Judge Michael Farbiarz explains that Mr. Khalil will challenge a Sept. 12 decision made by the immigration judge in Louisiana that denied Mr. Khalil a waiver of removability, bringing him one step closer to a final order of removal, because of baseless, pretextual “misrepresentation” charges the government added after his detention. 

As the letter notes, the immigration judge rushed to a decision without providing a hearing on the evidence as due process requires, engaging in multiple procedural irregularities, and choosing to believe the false charges made after the fact by the government. The letter also states how rare it is for an immigration judge to deny a waiver against a lawful permanent resident with a U.S. spouse and child, and no criminal record. 

The federal district court’s separate orders, prohibiting the government from deporting or detaining Mr. Khalil as his federal court case proceeds, remain in effect. The letter to federal court explains that the immigration judge’s decision is further evidence of retaliation and that Mr. Khalil will be pressing ahead in federal court to prove these charges are pretextual and unlawful. 

“It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech. Their latest attempt, through a kangaroo immigration court, exposes their true colors once again,” said Mahmoud Khalil. “When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide. Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate for my people’s liberation.”

In June, the federal court ruled that the government’s original justification for Mr. Khalil’s detention based only on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s say-so was likely unconstitutional and blocked his detention and deportation on that basis. After this ruling, the government shifted its justification for Mr. Khalil’s detention to false, retaliatory charges about purported misrepresentations on his green card application. As Mr. Khalil’s legal team thoroughly outlined in court filings, these after-the-fact charges are meritless and retaliatory. 

“The Trump administration will stop at nothing to try to silence Mr. Khalil, including by denying him, his family, and his supporters the right to testify in immigration court, in complete contravention of the U.S. Constitution,” said Johnny Sinodis, partner at Van Der Hout LLP. “We have witnessed a constant lack of humanity and allegiance to the law throughout proceedings in this farcical Louisiana immigration court, and the immigration judge’s September 12 decision is just the most recent example of what occurs when the system requires an arbiter that is anything but neutral to do the administration’s bidding. As with other illegal efforts by the government, this too will be challenged and overcome.”

“When the immigration prosecutor, judge, and jailor all answer to Donald Trump, and that one man is eager to weaponize the system in a desperate bid to silence Mahmoud Khalil, a U.S. permanent resident whose only supposed sin is that he stands against an ongoing genocide in Palestine, this is the result,” said Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR. “A plain-as-day First Amendment violation that also puts on sharp display the rapidly freefalling credibility of the entire U.S. immigration system.”

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

For all case materials, please see here, here, and here. 

This press release is available here: