Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyers said on Friday that they have asked the US Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to reopen his immigration case and terminate it entirely, citing a litany of “abnormalities” they say indicate their client did not receive fair treatment under the law.
The motion was filed on Thursday.
The former Columbia University student and Palestinian rights activist came a step closer to being deported after the BIA issued a final removal order in his case early last month.
The judges who make up the BIA do not operate as an independent judiciary because the BIA falls under the control of the executive branch of government – in this case, the Trump administration.
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The same applies to all immigration courts, which operate under the Department of Justice (DOJ), even though, in theory, they are bound by US law and not the government’s agenda.
But last week, The New York Times revealed that the BIA’s ruling was an “unusually speedy decision” that “included the recusal of multiple judges, continuing a pattern of abnormality that has marked the case from its outset”.
Internal documents viewed by the paper indicated that Khalil’s file was flagged as a high-priority case, even though immigration cases that are assessed after a person is freed from detention can take years.
The BIA’s decision took nine days, and three judges recused themselves from the process, possibly indicating some kind of conflict in having assessed the very same case before, The New York Times said.
The motion filed by Khalil’s legal team contains testimony from a former immigration judge who believes the same.
‘Must be thrown out’
Khalil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside his home in New York City in March 2025. He was released three months later and continues to fight his case alongside his US citizen wife and child.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked Khalil’s Green Card at the time of his arrest, citing him as posing a threat to US foreign policy interests.
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The Trump administration later also said he lied about his work history on his Green Card application, which Khalil maintains is untrue.
His lawyers have said the decision to remove him from the country is in direct retaliation for his pro-Palestine speech.
“It’s clear that the revelations of DOJ misconduct corroborate what we have known since Mahmoud was arrested–that the administration has reverse-engineered its desired outcome by weaponizing a farcical proceeding littered with abnormalities,” Johnny Sinodis of the law firm Van Der Hout LLP, which is one of the groups representing Khalil, said in a statement on Friday.
“The administration has to be held to account, and the government’s case against Mahmoud must be thrown out,” he added.
“Transparency also dictates that the government produce any records regarding the handling and adjudication of Mahmoud’s case. The apparent interference with the Immigration Judge’s decision making is not only unconstitutional but also violates the government’s own rules and procedures.”
Khalil has a separate, ongoing federal case regarding what his team said were violations of his constitutional rights, which means he cannot be re-arrested by ICE or deported until that case is closed.
