The high-stakes legal war over Mahmoud Khalil, the face of the pro-Palestinian student movement, took a sharp turn on Thursday, April 9, 2026.
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) officially rejected Khalil’s request for leniency, upholding a previous ruling that the student activist is eligible for deportation.
Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student born in a Syrian refugee camp and a citizen of Algeria, became a primary target of the Trump administration last year.
Officials initially moved to deport him by labeling him an "obstruction to U.S. foreign policy" following his leadership in campus protests against Israel.
When a federal judge blocked that path, the administration pivoted, alleging immigration fraud.
They claim Khalil failed to disclose a past association with a United Nations agency in Gaza when applying for his green card after marrying a U.S. citizen in 2023.
"I have broken no law," Khalil fired back in a statement released via the ACLU.
He maintains that the government has "weaponized the immigration system" to silence his dissent against the ongoing conflict.
Despite the BIA’s decision, the moving trucks aren't at his door just yet.
Khalil has a separate case pending in a regular circuit court of appeals and has vowed to fight this latest ruling until the end.
The case has become a lightning rod for the administration’s "zero-tolerance" approach to foreign nationals involved in domestic political unrest.
While the Justice Department celebrates a procedural victory, civil rights groups warn that targeting permanent residents for their political speech sets a dangerous precedent for the First Amendment.