DHS relied on 'tabloids' as evidence to arrest green card holder and Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil
Evidence submitted by Department of Homeland Security lawyers attempts to support the government's accusations that
Mahmoud Khalil should be deported on the grounds that he lied on his
green card application.
The evidence -- which included reporting by some conservative news outlets -- centers on accusations that he withheld information about his employment history and his participation in pro-Palestinian groups.
ABC News has reviewed over 100 pages of evidence submitted in immigration court by both DHS lawyers and those representing Mahmoud Khalil.
On Friday, Judge Jamee Comans, an immigration judge based in Louisiana, where Khalil is being held agreed with the government's stance that Khalil is deportable under a section of the
Immigration and Nationality Act that says a person can be deemed deportable "if the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe that the alien's presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States."
But Comans did not rule on the government's allegations that he lied on his green card application.
Accusation: Khalil failed to disclose he's a 'member' of CUAD
According to a Notice to Appear submitted in federal court filings, DHS has claimed Khalil "failed to disclose that you were a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD)."
CUAD has been prominently involved in protests against the war in Gaza held at Columbia University.
To support their allegations, government lawyers submitted articles that were published in April 2024, which feature Khalil as a lead negotiator between student protesters who had set up encampments on campus and university administration officials.
However, Khalil's green card application, reviewed by ABC News and included in the government's evidence, shows it was submitted on March 29, weeks before the articles were published.
"These articles from late April 2024 cannot possibly support an allegation that Mahmoud failed to disclose any affiliation with CUAD on that application. Furthermore, CUAD is a collection of organizations and there is no individual membership, so the allegation would be completely meritless even if all of the government's evidence were not from a month after Mahmoud submitted his application," Marc Van Der Hout, Khalil's immigration attorney, told ABC News.
In response to the government's claims, Khalil's lawyers have submitted information they believe shows that CUAD is not standalone group, but rather a coalition of separate groups, and that Khalil was a negotiator for these and other protesters and not a member.
As evidence, his lawyers submitted letters from several people familiar with his role in the protests, including a professor at Columbia University.
"I want to emphasize that Mahmoud Khalil's involvement was not as a member of CUAD. As I understood it — and also as is my understanding from the Columbia administrators with whom I spoke — Mr. Khalil served as a negotiator between CUAD and other student protesters, on the one hand, and the Columbia administration, on the other," the professor wrote.
Accusation: Khalil did not disclose he was a member of UNRWA
According to court filings, DHS has also accused Khalil of failing to disclose that he was a "member" of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from June 2023 - November 2023. The organization provides humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees.
As evidence, DHS lawyers included excerpts from an article titled "These are the extremist student leaders of the anti-Israel protest camp bringing Columbia to its knees" published in the New York Post.
"Khalil was a political affairs officer with UNRWA--the United Nations' agency that supports Palestinian refugees from June to November 2023, according to LinkedIn," the article read.
Another excerpt included in the evidence, cites an article from The Times of India published March 11, 2025, which similarly claims Khalil worked as political affairs officer at the U.N. organization.
"The agency lost significant federal funding following reports that some members participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,200 fatalities," the excerpt says.
In immigration court, Khalil's lawyers submitted a screenshot of his LinkedIn profile which says he was an intern at UNRWA as a political affairs officer on those dates. They also submitted a letter dated April 10 and written by a Columbia University official that says Khalil concluded a 12-week internship at UNRWA for credit.
In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for UNRWA confirmed Khalil did a six-month, unpaid internship at the UNRWA Representative Office in New York in 2023.
"He was not a staff member of the Agency nor was he ever on the Agency's payroll," the spokesperson said. But the spokesperson also said, the agency "does not have in its Human Resources the job title of "Political Affairs Officer".
ABC News has reached out to Khalil's attorneys for comment.
Accusation: Khalil failed to disclose he was employed at the British Embassy in Beirut
DHS lawyers allege that on his green card application, Khalil did not disclose his "continuing employment" as a Program Manager by the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut "beyond 2022."
On his green card application, under the "employment history" section, Khalil said he was a Program Manager at the British Embassy in Beirut from June 2018 to December 2022.
DHS submitted a profile of Khalil written on a website promoting an upcoming Society for International Development United States conference.
"Mahmoud Khalil works as a Program Manager at the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut," the profile says.
However, documents that Khalil's lawyers have submitted indicates they plan to argue that the information about him was written for a conference in 2020, and have included a schedule from that year that lists him as a speaker.
Additionally, they included an email written by a British Embassy official dated April 11, 2025, that states Khalil "ended his contract at the British Embassy Beirut in December 2022 in order to take up a scholarship at Columbia University."
ABC News has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
During the Friday hearing, Khalil's attorney Johnny Sinodis condemned DHS' evidence against his client.
"DHS did zero investigation on its own other than to file tabloids," he said in court.
