Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyers will seek testimonies from Marco Rubio

Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyers on Thursday said they would seek the testimony of the secretary of state Marco Rubio, who claims that although Mr. Khalil did not commit crimes, his own presence in the United States allows anti -Semitism.

Mr. Khalil, graduated from Columbia University who led pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the campus last year, was detained by the government for more than a month. On Friday he had an audition at the Louisiana immigration court, where his lawyers recognized, it is unlikely that the judge will guarantee their request to listen to Mr. Rubio.

But they said that the lack of justification for the detention of Mr. Khalil in addition to Rubio’s statement made even more essential that the secretary was forced to answer questions in a deposition.

“Mr. Khalil has the right in two processes to face the tests against him, and that’s what we want to examine the secretary of state Rubio,” said Marc Van der Hout, one of his lawyers.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a comment request.

The observations of the lawyers arrived in a news briefing one day after the National Security Department presented evidence in his case to expel Mr. Khalil. The case raised important questions about freedom of speech and on the right trial during the second term of President Trump.

Khalil’s lawyers said that the evidence that the Department presented – including a not dated Reminder of Rubio – did not provide any additional justification for the topic of the Trump Administration for the deportation of Mr. Khalil.

The reminder, obtained for the first time by The Associated PressHe did not accuse Mr. Khalil, a permanent legal resident who is Palestinian and married to an American citizen, of criminal conduct. Instead, As it was reportedThe administration has mentioned a rare statute that allows the secretary of state to start deportation procedures against anyone who can reasonably consider a threat to the United States foreign policy, in this case a policy of fighting anti -Semitism.

Mr. Khalil was highly visible During the protests of the Collumbia campus last year, while it represented a coalition of student organizations in negotiations with the school.

In public declarationsThe National Security Department said that Mr. Khalil is “aligned with Hamas”, while the White House accused him of “Foaming with terrorists. “But also with the publication of Rubio’s memo, no proof was offered publicly that he would have confirmed these accusations.

Homeland Security has also presented evidence related to others accusations Against Mr. Khalil, who worries if he revealed his belonging to several organizations, including a United Nations Agency that helps Palestinian refugees, when he applied to become a permanent resident of the United States last March.

A spokesman for the department refused to predict that, or any other test, noting that “the banks of the immigration court are not available to the public”.

Mr. Van der Hout was contemptuous towards those accusations, calling them “fake”.

“Rubio’s letter is the only proof that goes to the main charge in this case,” he said.

Mr. Khalil was arrested last month in Manhattan and was quickly transferred to Louisiana, where he has been held since then. He and his wife, dr. Noor Abdalla expect a son this month.

The judge who supervises his case of immigration, Jamee E. Comans, reported that he does not believe that it is his role to decide the constitutionality of the statute that Mr. Rubio is citing. Instead, at the hearing on Friday, it should determine whether the evidence provided by the government meet the requirements of the law used rarely that it is citing – and therefore if Mr. Khalil can be expelled.

Although it allows the government to expel Mr. Khalil, it would not be immediately removed from the country.

While his case of immigration proceeds in Louisiana, the efforts to combat the constitutionality of his detention are taking place in front of a federal judge in New Jersey. That judge, Michael FarbierzHe ordered the government not to remove Mr. Khalil until otherwise governed.