Mahmoud Khalil case heats up: U.S. alleges UNRWA cover-up; seeks to deport him quickly 

The Trump administration has escalated its push to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and vocal pro-Palestinian activist, alleging he hid his past work with a controversial U.N. agency on his visa application. In a court filing Sunday, the U.S. government claims Khalil withheld his role as a political officer for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in 2023—a move they say justifies his removal from the country.

Khalil, a Syrian-born Algerian citizen who led high-profile protests against Israel’s war in Gaza on Columbia’s campus last year, was detained by federal agents on March 8. Now held in a Louisiana facility, he’s at the heart of a legal firestorm pitting free speech against national security. Supporters rallied in New York on March 10, waving signs and chanting for his release, while Khalil himself has labeled his detention as that of a “political prisoner.”

The U.S. case hinges on UNRWA, a relief agency allegedly serving millions of Palestinian refugees with food, healthcare, and education across Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The agency—called the “backbone” of Palestinian humanitarian aid by the U.N.—became a lightning rod after Israel alleged that several of its employees joined Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage in southern Israel. A U.N. probe in August found nine of UNRWA’s 32,000 staff may have been involved, prompting the U.S. to cut funding. Israel further claims over 10% of UNRWA’s Gaza staff have terror ties and that its schools fuel anti-Israel hatred—a charge the agency denies.

The government’s Sunday brief doesn’t stop at UNRWA. It accuses Khalil of omitting two other affiliations from his 2022 student visa application: work with the Syria office at the British Embassy in Beirut and membership in Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian student group. Together, these omissions, the U.S. argues, make him deportable—asserting his presence poses “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

Khalil’s journey to this moment began with a student visa in 2022, followed by a 2024 bid for permanent residency after marrying a U.S. citizen, now eight months pregnant. His activism surged during Columbia’s chaotic 2024 protests, where he emerged as a key figure, surrounded by media outside campus gates. Detained days after Trump took office, Khalil’s case fulfills a campaign vow to target noncitizen protesters—a pledge underscored when the president called his arrest “the first of many” on March 10.

A federal judge has paused deportation proceedings, ordering Khalil to remain in the U.S. while a habeas petition challenging his detention plays out in New Jersey. The government’s filing pushes back, claiming the court lacks jurisdiction and defending its custody stance. Meanwhile, Khalil’s legal team fires back. Attorney Ramie Kassem, co-director of the CLEAR legal clinic, told the New York Times the new charges are “patently weak and pretextual,” arguing they’re a last-minute scramble to silence Khalil’s “protected speech in support of Palestinian rights and lives.” His lawyers didn’t immediately respond to further queries.

The stakes are high. The case tests whether activism can strip a green card holder of their status—or if it’s a First Amendment fight the government can’t win. For now, Khalil sits in Louisiana, hopefully realizing that yes– actions really do have consequences.

Reuters and Times of Israel contributed to this article.