On Thursday, over 10 grueling hours behind the barbed wire of the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Middle, the place Khalil is being held, his attorneys known as on specialists by way of videoconference to persuade the choose to grant him asylum and set him free. Right here’s the center of their argument: The Trump administration’s false, they are saying, and public accusations that Khalil is an anti-Semite and terrorist sympathizer have turned him right into a excessive profile critic of Israel identified around the globe. Due to that, he mentioned he fears that if he’s deported to the Center East, Israel may come after him.
“It may vary from assassination, kidnapping, torture,” Khalil mentioned throughout greater than three hours of testimony that recalled key moments in his life, from his earliest reminiscence in a Palestinian refugee camp close to Damascus, Syria, to lacking the start of his son final month as a result of he was locked up on the detention middle 1,400 miles from his dwelling in New York.
President Trump, Secretary of State Rubio, and different authorities officers “mislabeled me a terrorist, a terrorist sympathizer or a Hamas supporter, which couldn’t be farther from the reality. I advocate for human rights. I by no means engaged in antisemitic actions,” Khalil mentioned.
He challenged the federal government attorneys sitting just a few toes from him to supply any proof on the contrary. “I turned, not by alternative, a celeb – somebody who has a goal on his again by these mislabels. This implies wherever I’m going on this planet, I’ll have that concentrate on.”
Decide Comans mentioned it will be a number of weeks earlier than she comes to a decision on Khalil’s asylum declare. However no matter she decides is not going to be the ultimate phrase on his destiny. A federal choose within the Northeast has briefly blocked the federal government from deporting him whereas he considers whether or not it violated Khalil’s constitutional proper to free speech. Khalil’s attorneys are pursuing each authorized choice to cease his deportation and restore his inexperienced card, and have mentioned they’ll go all the way in which to the Supreme Courtroom if needed.
Throughout Thursday’s asylum listening to, his attorneys questioned a number of specialists on the Center East about why they thought Khalil can be in danger if he’s despatched again there.
“The U.S. has known as him a pro-Hamas agent,” mentioned Muriam Haleh Davis, a professor of the Center East at U.C. Santa Cruz. She mentioned Israel has traditionally focused Hamas collaborators for assassination.
Khaled Elgindy, an professional on Israeli-Palestinian affairs at Georgetown College, informed the court docket that Khalil’s newly elevated profile as a critic of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza places him vulnerable to hurt or arrest.
Khalil has achieved a capability to sway Individuals, Elgindy mentioned, so “he’s a direct and potent risk to Israel’s aims. If he may be focused by the US authorities, then definitely the Israelis would understand him in an analogous gentle.”
Lisa Wedeen, a Syria professional on the College of Chicago, testified in regards to the ease with which, if it wished to, Israel may goal Khalil there, given Syria’s political instability and Israel’s current enlargement of the territory it controls within the nation.
“My greatest fear is that they’ll disappear him,” Wedeen mentioned, due to “the latitude and impunity with which Israel is ready to function in Syria.”
Throughout his testimony, Khalil mentioned that along with fearing Israel, he’s additionally involved that if he returns to Syria, he might be focused by former operatives of Bashar al-Assad who’ve remained within the nation since Assad’s authorities fell final December. Khalil, who’s now 30, mentioned he organized protests towards Assad as a teen in Syria and fled the nation in 2013 after two cousins he typically protested with have been arrested.
The Division of Homeland Safety didn’t name any witnesses of its personal to problem Khalil’s declare of concern. Whether or not it submitted written testimony is unclear.
However when he cross-examined Khalil, Numa Metoyer, a lawyer for the division, requested questions probing the extent of hazard Khalil would truly face.
If he feared deportation to Syria, Metoyer requested him, why had he visited the nation in January?
“Earlier than March 8 was totally different than after March 8,” Khalil mentioned, referring to the date ICE brokers arrested him, main President Trump to name him a “Radical Overseas Professional-Hamas Scholar.”
“As a result of consideration was dropped at you right here on this case, now you have got been focused by the Israeli authorities?” Metoyer requested.
The Division of Homeland Safety didn’t instantly reply to questions on Khalil’s asylum declare. After the listening to, his attorneys mentioned they hoped the choose will think about it “with an open thoughts.”
Throughout his testimony, Khalil did too.
“Though I’ve no religion within the immigration system,” he mentioned, “I hope that my presence right here is just not merely a formality.”
