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Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of the media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University on June 1, 2024.
GZERO Explains: Where do things stand for Mahmoud Khalil?
The court battle over whether the US can deport Mahmoud Khalil, the 30-year-old Palestinian-Algerian activist detained in New York last Saturday, began this week in Manhattan. Khalil has been an outspoken activist for Palestinian rights, often leading protests at Columbia University in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and the subsequent Gaza conflict.
Khalil was arrested Saturday at his apartment in a university-owned building at Columbia University by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and he is now being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana. His lawyers are fighting to have him returned to New York for the deportation trial as they believe a hearing in Louisiana would more likely favor the government.
For now, a New York judge has blocked Khalil from being deported while he challenges his detention in a separate case. The judge has also required that Khalil be allowed unmonitored calls with his lawyers, which he hadn’t been granted before Wednesday.
What is his background? Khalil is a legal permanent resident of the US, which means he has a “green card.” He was born to Palestinian parents in Syria, where he was raised in a refugee camp. Palestinian refugees have historically been denied Syrian citizenship, and Khalil eventually gained Algerian citizenship.
He is married to Noor Abdalla, a US citizen who is eight months pregnant with their first child. He is also a recent graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and was a lead negotiator for students participating in the Gaza solidarity encampment at the school last year.
What is he accused of? There have been no criminal charges against Khalil, but government officials, including President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, say Khalil is a threat to national security and foreign policy. The US administration views the pro-Palestine protests on Columbia’s campus last year as aligned with Hamas’ worldview, and Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin has said Khalil participated in activities “aligned with Hamas.”
The Trump administration seeks to deport Khalil in line with section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (8 USC § 1227), which states that an LPR can be deported if their “presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
But Khalil’s lawyers say the government has not presented any evidence in court filings that Khalil has ties with or supports Hamas.
Can a permanent resident be deported? ICE agents said they were stripping Khalil of his green card, but according to legal scholars, green card holders can’t be stripped of their immigration status without due process.
Khalil’s arrest raises serious questions about the rights and entitlements of green card holders under the new Trump administration. But green card holders are entitled to basic Constitutional protections, including First Amendment and due process rights, which advocates and attorneys for Khalil say the government is violating.
There’s very little legal precedent for this kind of removal, especially for LPRs, but this section of the INA has been used to prevent people from coming to the US. The administration appears to be testing this little-used statute to see if it can be deployed further.
Where would Khalil be deported? The US government has not mentioned whether it plans to deport Khalil to Syria or Algeria, but as he holds Algerian citizenship, the latter would be the most likely. It’s worth noting, however, that Algeria often rejects deportation orders from France, and it’s unclear how Algiers responds to US deportation requests.Why Khalil? President Donald Trump has said that Khalil is “the first arrest of many to come.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly named two people, including Khalil, to be deported in a March 7 letter he sent to Homeland Security. Both were identified as legal permanent residents, but the second person has not yet been arrested.
Rescued miners are seen as they are processed by police after being rescued at the mine shaft where rescue operations are ongoing as attempts are made to rescue illegal miners who have been underground for months, in Stilfontein, South Africa, January 14, 2025.
South African authorities haul dozens of bodies from mine siege
South African police said Wednesday that rescuers had recovered 78 bodies and 246 living miners this week from an abandoned gold mine near Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, that has been the site of a tense siege since August. Hundreds more miners were believed to be hiding underground, but rescue volunteers were unable to locate them.
The miners have been hesitant to leave the mine and have gone for months without natural light, including periods without food and water, because police arrested those who surfaced. Over 1,500 miners have been detained since August, and some have been deported.
Vulnerable migrants. The majority of the arrested miners came from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho to seek a better life in South Africa. Instead, they were targeted by criminal gangs that took over abandoned commercial mines and forced disadvantaged migrants to risk their lives extracting what little valuable ore remains.
The men in Stilfontein managed to send letters and pictures via an improvised pulley system that friends and family used to send them food and water. Images of emaciated men sitting among what appeared to be the remains of colleagues have shocked the Rainbow Nation, but police say they are determined to crack down on illegal mining.
Political waves. Tackling the heavily armed gangsters who control the mines, however, will be tough. And the siege threatens to upend politics in Johannesburg, where a delicate alliance between the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance has held together against all expectations since last summer. The DA is calling for an independent inquiry into the mine operation, and we’ll be watching for cracks in the coalition.
Alice Weidel, AfD national chairman, waits on the sidelines of her party's national convention for a TV interview to begin. The AfD wants to adopt its election program in Riesa.
What is “remigration” and why is the German far right calling for it?
European media is abuzz with a new term embraced by Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party chair Alice Weidel during her disturbing speech at the far-right party’s leadership conference on Saturday: “remigration.” AfD has surged to second place in national polls ahead of Germany’s Feb. 23 election – following four years of anemic growth and ineffective government. The party has also enjoyed support from American right-wingers like Elon Musk, who streamed Weidel’s speech on his social media.
What is “remigration”? A term popularized in the German-speaking world by Austrian neo-Nazi Martin Sellner, it refers to forcibly removing immigrants who refuse to integrate with German culture, regardless of their citizenship status. In other words, a German of Turkish or Syrian descent, born and raised in the country, could be expelled, though just how the scheme would work is not clear.
Eagle-eyed readers will recognize this as ethnic cleansing in a fancy dress, and given Weidel’s attempts to portray herself as electable, her embrace of the term is striking. She may have felt emboldened by the AfD’s state-level victories in September in Thuringia, where reactionary Björn Höcke ran the show. Notably, Weidel’s crowds have taken to chanting “Alice für Deutschland!” — a deliberate homophone of the banned Nazi slogan “Alles für Deutschland!”
Will AfD take power? Probably not — they’re 10 percentage points behind the center-right Christian Democratic Union, and they are reviled by all other parties. But given how strongly the far right is performing in Europe, the party’s agenda can push political discourse further to the right. In addition to remigration, Weidel wants to close Germany’s borders, quit using the Euro, and start buying Russian gas.
Even if the AfD loses, it will have its largest-ever voice in the Bundestag. The CDU will need a coalition, but negotiations with the next largest parties are likely to be fraught. We’re watching for extended gridlock in Berlin.