Protesters Surround Trump’s Border Czar on Khalil Detainment
March 12, 2025
Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention
Columbia Activist Has Not Been Allowed to Speak Privately With Lawyers
Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident who the Trump administration has claimed is a national security threat, is in immigration detention in Louisiana.
Ramzi Kassem, one of Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyers, said that the detention was interfering with his client’s access to the courts.Juan Arredondo for The New York Times
Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate detained by the Trump administration last weekend, have not been able to hold a private conversation with their client since his arrest.
That revelation came during a hearing in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, as lawyers for Mr. Khalil and the government appeared in front of a judge, Jesse Furman, to discuss Mr. Khalil’s detention, which has raised concerns about free speech protections amid President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Mr. Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the Columbia campus, was arrested by federal immigration agents in New York on Saturday and is being held at a facility in Louisiana.
He has not been charged with any crime. But the Trump administration has accused him of siding with terrorists, and justified his detention by citing a little-used statutethat grants the secretary of state the power to initiate deportation proceedings against anyone whose presence in the United States is “adversarial” to the country’s foreign policy and national security interests.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters during a stop in Ireland on Wednesday, accused Mr. Khalil of participating in antisemitic activities, including protests that Mr. Rubio said had expressed support for Hamas. Mr. Rubio said that anyone who did so would be removed from the United States.
“This is not about free speech,” he said. “This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card.”
Lawyers for Mr. Khalil, a legal permanent resident, will attempt to fight the government as it seeks to deport their client, but is it not clear in which court that fight will take place. Judge Furman has ordered the government not to deport Mr. Khalil while his case is pending. But the Wednesday hearing related to the circumstances of Mr. Khalil’s detention, not his legal residency.
Early Sunday morning, lawyers for Mr. Khalil filed a petition asking Judge Furman to release their client. They have also asked that the judge order the government to return Mr. Khalil to New York. At the hearing Wednesday morning, one of Mr. Khalil’s lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, said that the distance was hindering his access to his client.
Protesters yelled at Tom Homan that Mahmoud Khalil’s detainment by the Trump administration undermined the First Amendment, during a demonstration at the New York State Capitol.
“No hate, no fear. Immigrants are welcome here. No hate, no fear —” “Do you believe in the First Amendment? Do you believe in the First Amendment? Tell me, how many more New Yorkers will you charge without targeting?” “The real terrorists are in the White House.” “Every day that Mahmoud spends in detention in Louisiana is a day too long. We and he fully intend to vindicate not just his First Amendment rights, but those of all Americans, frankly, and all lawful permanent residents and anybody who wants to speak out.”
Protesters yelled at Tom Homan that Mahmoud Khalil’s detainment by the Trump administration undermined the First Amendment, during a demonstration at the New York State Capitol.Juan Arredondo for The New York Times
Mr. Kassem said that Mr. Khalil’s legal team had requested a private call with their client to discuss his case, and that the earliest appointment the lawyers were offered was on March 20, nearly two weeks after it was requested.
Judge Furman ordered the government to let Mr. Khalil’s lawyers speak with him Wednesday and Thursday as they prepare a new filing calling for his release. He also set a schedule for the lawyers to file arguments as to where the case should be heard.
It is not clear whether the issue will ultimately be decided in New York. At the conference, a lawyer for the government, Brandon Waterman, said that Mr. Khalil had been transferred to New Jersey by the time his lawyers filed their initial petition in Manhattan court.
Mr. Khalil was arrested on Saturday evening and the petition was filed at 4:40 a.m. Sunday. Amy Greer, one of Mr. Khalil’s lawyers, has said she believed that Mr. Khalil was in New York at the time. But Mr. Waterman said that Mr. Khalil was in New Jersey no later than 3:20 a.m. Sunday.
Mr. Waterman added that the government would prefer that any further scrutiny of Mr. Khalil’s detention take place outside New York, either in New Jersey or Louisiana.
Judge Furman did not make any immediate decision about where the matter would be heard. But he told Mr. Waterman to be prepared to address a 2004 Supreme Court opinion that could bode well for Mr. Khalil’s lawyers as they fight to keep his case in New York, where Mr. Khalil lives with his pregnant wife, an American citizen.
In the concurring opinion, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy laid out circumstances in which a detainee’s case should be heard in the place from which he was removed. The circumstances included the government’s transportation of a prisoner for the purpose of complicating lawyers’ efforts to seek his release in the appropriate court, and the government’s refusal to communicate where the detainee was being held.
Mr. Khalil’s wife attended the Wednesday conference, sitting in the front row and facing straight ahead. Before the judge entered, she whispered with a lawyer seated beside her, her _expression_ worried and occasionally grim.
A park outside the courthouse was flooded with hundreds of protesters, some wearing kaffiyehs and black masks and waving posters, banners and signs reading “Free Mahmoud.” They were joined by the actor Susan Sarandon, wearing a black beret and leather jacket.
Speaking to the camera crews gathered outside the courthouse, Mr. Kassem said that his client had been “disappeared by U.S. government agents” after criticizing the American and Israeli governments. “That’s not just un-American, it’s also unacceptable,” he added.
Another lawyer read a statement from Mr. Khalil’s wife, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal from online critics or the government. She is expected to give birth next month.
In her statement, she said that Mr. Khalil had been kidnapped from their home, and called his continued detention shameful. She demanded his immediate release and return, saying that his disappearance had been devastating and that every day without him was filled with uncertainty.
President Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan, said on Wednesday that the administration considered Mr. Khalil “a national security threat.” As Mr. Homan answered reporters’ questions in Albany, he accused Mr. Khalil of handing out leaflets “inciting violence on campus.”
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday that Mr. Khalil had sided with terrorists and accused him of participating in protests at which pro-Hamas fliers were handed out. She did not respond to an email requesting clarification as to whether Mr. Khalil passed out the fliers himself.
The White House has said that Mr. Khalil is only the first of many whom it plans to detain and deport.
Edward Wong and Benjamin Oreskes contributed reporting.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in the New York region, with a focus on political influence and its effect on the rule of law in the area's federal and state courts. More about Jonah E. Bromwich
A version of this article appears in print on March 13, 2025, Section A, Page 22 of the New York edition with the headline: Detained Activist Has Not Been Allowed to Talk Privately With Lawyers. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe