Mahmoud Khalil's Lawyers File Bid to Reopen Deportation Case After Board of Immigration Appeals Upholds Removal Order

Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil requested on Friday that US immigration authorities terminate their push to deport him. The filing with the Board of Immigration Appeals seeks to reopen his case and end proceedings, citing new evidence that the Trump administration secretly engineered the outcome of his immigration case to make an example of him.

Khalil was one of the most visible leaders of pro-Palestinian campus protests in the United States.

A former graduate student at Columbia University in New York, he was a prominent face of pro-Palestinian protests at the college at the height of the war in Gaza. President Trump has championed the effort to deport him. Undercover federal agents arrested Khalil in March 2025.

His detention was one of the first of foreigners linked to pro-Palestinian activity in the United States. The Trump administration sought to have him deported on the grounds that his activities were harmful to US foreign affairs, triggering a long and complex legal fight. Though released from custody in June, Khalil has faced continued threats of deportation from federal authorities.

On April 9, 2026, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his challenge against removal and issued a final removal order. Khalil cannot legally be detained again or deported pending appeals of other legal orders, his lawyers argue. Khalil's lawyers claim the Board of Immigration Appeals improperly influenced the lower immigration court's decision, fast-tracked his proceedings, bypassed normal channels through which immigration appeals are docketed and adjudicated, and reached a decision in an unheard-of nine days.

They filed the request on Friday with the Board of Immigration Appeals to re-open Khalil's case and terminate it. "New evidence reveals that the Trump Administration secretly engineered the outcome of his immigration case to make an example of him," Khalil's lawyers said in a statement.

“The administration wants to arrest, detain, and deport me to intimidate everyone speaking out for Palestine across this country, and they are willing to violate longstanding US rules and procedures to do it," said Khalil. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which includes the Board of Immigration Appeals, did not respond to an AFP request for comment. al-monitor.com reported the details of the filing and the sequence of events in Khalil's case. Khalil's lawyers stated that the new evidence reveals the Trump Administration secretly engineered the outcome of his immigration case to make an example of him. The request on Friday marks the latest step in a case that began with his arrest by undercover federal agents in March 2025 and continued after his release from custody in June.”