The Trump administration’s case to deport Columbia University graduate and activist leader Mahmoud Khalil rests solely on a letter written by Secretary of State Marco Rubio which repeats the baseless claim that Khalil engaged in “antisemitism,” according to a copy of the letter shared with The Intercept.

The Department of Homeland Security submitted Rubio’s letter, a 1 ½-page declaration, on Wednesday evening at a Louisiana immigration court at the LaSalle ICE facility. The letter from Rubio is undated and it is unclear whether it was written before or after Khalil’s arrest on March 8. Khalil has been imprisoned at the Louisiana ICE facility since the day after his arrest. 

On Tuesday, Judge Jamee Comans ordered the government to present evidence by Wednesday to justify its attempt to deport Khalil. Rubio’s letter was the sole piece of evidence provided by DHS attorneys, the source said.

Comans will preside over a hearing on Friday to decide whether the government’s evidence is sufficient to deport Khalil. If Comans rules against the government, Khalil could be released as early as Friday. 

“If he’s not removable, I don’t want him to continue to be detained — I will have him released,” Comans told attorneys for Khalil and the government during Tuesday’s hearing, according to multiple reports.

Rubio’s letter does not include new allegations or new evidence to support its deportation claim against Khalil, a legal permanent resident.

Instead, the letter cites the “adverse foreign policy” provision in the Immigration Nationality Act, the same provision cited by the government when it imprisoned Khalil in Louisiana. The Trump administration’s attorneys have referred to the provision in multiple court documents in Khalil’s separate habeas petition case in New Jersey, in which Khalil’s legal team has been pushing for his release. 

The rarely used immigration law provision gives the secretary of state the authority to request the deportation of an individual, who is not a U.S. citizen, if they have “reasonable ground to believe” the individual’s presence in the country harms U.S. foreign policy interests.

The letter filed Wednesday asserts that Khalil engaged in “antisemitism” and that it is U.S. foreign policy to keep people out of the country who engage in such activities. The letter also includes a second person targeted for deportation, but their name was redacted by the government. The government regularly conflates Khalil’s advocacy for Palestine with antisemitism.

“The public actions and continued presence of [redacted name] and Khalil in the United States undermine U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States,” Rubio wrote. He then cited Trump’s “America First” executive order that calls on the secretary of state to “always put America and American citizens first” in foreign policy. 

“Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote.

The State Department declined to comment due to the ongoing legal case.

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In previous public statements, Rubio has called Khalil “a supporter of Hamas,” the Palestinian militant group which governs over Gaza, a common and baseless claim made by the Trump administration about student protesters who oppose U.S. support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. During an interview with CBS News one week after Khalil’s arrest, Rubio refused to answer a question about whether the government has evidence linking Khalil to Hamas. Instead, Rubio deflected by accusing Khalil of leading protesters in “taking over” Columbia’s campus. 

Khalil was a lead negotiator between the Palestinian solidarity encampment at Columbia University and school administrators in the spring of 2024. The student-led movement demanded the university disclose and withdraw its investments in companies that profit off of Israel’s war in Gaza. Protesters briefly occupied Hamilton Hall, renamed Hind’s Hall, before NYPD officers raided the building, violently arresting dozens of students. Khalil was not among those arrested and faced a short suspension, which school officials quickly apologized for and rescinded after one-day

The Trump administration’s attorneys have previously accused Khalil of hiding certain employment experience from the government when applying for his green card. They claimed that Khalil failed to mention that he had previously worked for the Syria office of the British Embassy in Beirut as well as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees. Khalil was an unpaid intern at UNRWA for a brief time in 2023.

The government, however, did not include these allegations in its filing in immigration court on Wednesday. 

Khalil’s attorneys have pointed to a statute within the Immigration Nationality Act that prevents the secretary of state from using the “foreign policy” provision to deport someone based on an individual’s speech unless it has compelling grounds to do so. In a virtual press conference on Thursday, Khalil’s attorneys said Rubio’s letter falls short of establishing such grounds.  

“The Rubio memo is completely devoid of any factual recitation as to why exactly Mahmoud’s presence in the United States is adverse to a compelling U.S. government interest,” said Johnny Sinodis, a San Francisco-based immigration attorney and a lead in Khalil’s immigration case. “There’s absolutely nothing there in the letter itself, and that’s all the government has provided in order to establish the ‘foreign policy’ ground.”

Baher Azmy, who is leading Khalil’s case in New Jersey federal court, called Rubio’s letter “a tacky Soviet-style dictate that’s equal parts empty and and chilling.” 

Marc Van Der Hout, who is leading Khalil’s immigration defense, criticized Judge Comans for moving too quickly on the case without giving the legal team more time to bolster its defense of Khalil against deportation. He still plans on asking to depose Rubio to seek what more evidence, if any exists, the government has against Khalil. Rubio’s letter also alluded to several attachments, such as a letter written by DHS about Khalil and a Homeland Security Investigations profile of Khalil, but both were absent from the government’s filing.

Khalil’s attorneys said it’s clear the government’s case is about cracking down on his speech in support of Palestine and represents a precedent amid the Trump administration’s nationwide attacks on universities and students. The Trump administration has revoked hundreds of students since Khalil’s arrest. Many were not involved in protests at all, while some were being targeted for low-level misdemeanors. 

“And where would this lead?” Van Der Hout said. “Are we going to now throw people in jail for speaking out against the Social Security cuts in this country? This is a dangerous slope, and we are taking a stand on behalf of Mahmoud, and he is taking a stand.”

“He’s decided to stay in jail and fight this case to the bitter end,” he added, “while we try to establish that people like Mahmoud have a constitutional right to speak out in this country.”

Update: April 10, 2025, 7:14 p.m. ET
This article has been updated with additional comments.

Update: April 10, 2025, 3:54 p.m. ET
This article has been updated with additional details from the government filing in the case.

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