New documents entered New Jersey court on Thursday show that the federal government defended the warrantless arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist at Columbia University.
The documents have been entered into court records to contest the efforts of lawyers to gain Halil’s freedom, who has been detained for six weeks at a detention center in Jena, Louisiana.
In documents filed in Newark Federal Court, a Homeland Security lawyer wrote on Monday that on March 8 an agent overseeing Halil was notified that his presence and activities could be excluded from the country as it would have serious foreign policy consequences on the United States.
According to court filings, Halil walked along the sidewalk with his wife, and agents in the Homeland Security Investigation approached and identified himself.
After his wife obtained documents indicating that Khalil had a legal residence, the agent asked him to cooperate while trying to verify his identity, but Halil said he “doesn’t cooperate and was about to leave the scene,” the lawyer wrote.
At that time, the Homeland Security Superintendent “believed there was a risk of flight and there was a need for arrest,” he said.
In a release Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union said the allegations he was trying to escape were false and betrayed by video of the arrest by Halil’s wife and descriptions of previous arrests.
Khalil’s lawyer Marc van Der Hout said the agent told Khalil when he was detained that he had an arrest warrant, and his lawyers said this week he only learned by submitting that the new government has nothing.
“The government hospitalization is amazing and it is totally outrageous that in the first submission of the arrest report, they tried to assert the immigration judge and the world.
Amy Greer, the lawyer who called with Halil on the night of his arrest, said that Halil remained calm that night and complied with the orders even if the agent was unable to show a warrant for arrest.
“Today, we now know why they never showed Mahmoud that warrant – they didn’t have it. This is clearly yet another hopeless attempt by the Trump administration to justify the illegal arrest and detention of current human rights advocate Mahmoud Khalil, by an implicit entry of the government,” Greer said.
Halil is a legal permanent resident and graduate student who served as a campus activist last year at a massive demonstration in Colombia against the treatment of Palestinians and the war in Gaza.
He was taken into custody by a federal agent in the lobby of his Manhattan apartment on March 8th. This is President Donald Trump’s first arrest in crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.
The Trump administration has not accused Halil of criminal activity, but has argued that he should be expelled from the country because of his beliefs.
A Louisiana immigration judge ruled earlier this month that Halil’s presence in the United States had alleged the government’s claim that “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” met the requirements for deportation.
