NEW ORLEANS—The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed an amicus brief on Friday evening in a case seeking to reverse the decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) finding Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, deportable. The brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, explains that the evidence uncovered in the Knight Institute’s lawsuit AAUP v. Rubio demonstrates that the government targeted Khalil based on his core political speech as part of a government policy of arresting, detaining, revoking the visas of, and deporting noncitizens who engage in pro-Palestinian advocacy. It also argues that an after-the-fact charge brought against Khalil was a continuation of this effort to punish Khalil and others for their speech. The Knight Institute challenged this policy in federal court, which declared the policy unconstitutional and vacated it earlier this year. 

“The Trump administration has used its immigration authority in shocking and unprecedented ways to target Mr. Khalil and other pro-Palestinian advocates based solely on their constitutionally protected speech, and it has done so precisely to terrify others into silence and stifle dissent,” said Xiangnong (George) Wang, staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “The court should reverse the BIA’s decision and put an end to Mr. Khalil’s removal proceedings.”  

Khalil appealed his immigration case to the Fifth Circuit earlier this month, asking the court to reverse the BIA’s decision finding him removable and to terminate the proceedings entirely. Khalil argued that the BIA lacked the authority to sustain the key ground of his removal, that the grounds for his removal are unconstitutional, and that the immigration judge rushed to a decision without considering relevant evidence, refused to consider the constitutional challenges to his deportation, and improperly sustained pretextual, after-the-fact charges that the Trump administration brought in retaliation for his speech. 

In addition to arguing that the government targeted and retaliated against Khalil on the basis of his constitutionally protected political speech, the Knight Institute’s brief agrees with Khalil that the government’s conduct in this case was “outrageous” because Khalil’s advocacy implicates constitutional interests of the highest order, because the government’s targeting of Khalil and others based on their protected speech is particularly egregious, and because Khalil has an undeniable interest is avoiding targeted deportation that outweighs any interest the government may have in removing noncitizens due to disagreement with their views.

The Knight Institute challenged the Trump administration’s deportation policy in March 2025 on behalf of the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association. After a nine-day trial, the district court issued a landmark ruling invalidating the Trump administration’s policy of targeting noncitizen students and faculty for arrest, detention, visa revocation, and deportation because of their pro-Palestinian advocacy. The court held that the policy violated the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act and vacated the policy but declined to issue the injunction sought by the plaintiffs. The Knight Institute has asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals to permanently block the policy in order to end its continuing chilling effect on campuses nationwide. Read more about AAUP v. Rubio here.

The Knight Institute also previously filed an amicus brief in Khalil v. Trump, Khalil’s separate challenge to his unlawful arrest and detention, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to find that the government’s detention and attempted deportation of Khalil on the basis of his protected speech is unconstitutional. Read more about that case here. 

Read the Knight Institute’s Fifth Circuit amicus brief here.

Read more about this lawsuit, Khalil v. Blanche, here.

Lawyers on the case include Alex Abdo, Xiangnong (George) Wang, Raya Koreh, and Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute.

For more information, contact: Lorraine Kenny, [email protected].