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Mahmoud Khalil has been denied his right to a fair and full trial in immigration court.
Mahmoud has been detained, harassed, and punished for nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights to advocate for Palestinian rights. And new reporting demonstrates that the Trump administration has had its thumb on the scale the whole time.
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which is controlled by the Trump administration's Department of Justice, fast-tracked Mahmoud's proceedings before the appeal was even filed, bypassed normal channels, and issued a “final” administrative removal order in just nine days after the close of briefing, where similar appeals often take years. New evidence suggests that the immigration judge and the BIA had already made up their minds to order Mahmoud's deportation before he ever set foot in a courtroom. This is not due process.
As the evidence of misconduct and bias grows, one thing is clear: The immigration proceedings against Mahmoud Khalil have been a sham, and the BIA must reopen – and then terminate – his case. Sign our petition to let the BIA know the world is paying attention.
The government is obligated to provide noncitizens a full and fair hearing on their immigration claims.
Yet evidence is mounting that the Trump administration secretly engineered the outcome of Mahmoud Khalil's immigration proceedings to make an example of him and scare other immigrants from exercising their First Amendment rights.
It's never been clearer that the Trump administration is weaponizing the immigration court system to silence speech it doesn't like.
Immigration judges fired by the Trump administration have repeatedly reported being threatened – both implicitly and explicitly – if they don't rule according to what the government wants. The Board of Immigration Appeals bypassed normal processes to fast-track Mahmoud's deportation proceedings and decided against him in an unprecedented nine days. Multiple Board of Immigration Appeals judges recused themselves from the decision to publish their opinion, indicating they may have played a role in the immigration judge's decision-making behind the scenes. And that's on top of the growing reports that top government officials are pressuring judges to rush out predetermined decisions in high-profile cases like Mahmoud's in flagrant disregard of the Constitution's promise of due process.
This is unacceptable.
We, the undersigned, call on the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen Mahmoud Khalil's immigration proceedings and terminate his case.
