US Alleges Columbia Student Covered Up His Work for UNRWA

FILE - Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is on the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file)
FILE - Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is on the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file)
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US Alleges Columbia Student Covered Up His Work for UNRWA

FILE - Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is on the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file)
FILE - Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is on the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file)

The US government has alleged that Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil withheld that he worked for a United Nations Palestinian relief agency in his visa application, saying that should be grounds for deportation.

The UN agency known as UNRWA provides food and healthcare to Palestinian refugees and has become a flashpoint in the Israeli war in Gaza. Israel contends that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, leading the US to halt funding of the group.

The administration of US President Donald Trump on March 8 detained Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian campus protests that rocked the New York City campus last year, and sent him to Louisiana in an attempt to remove him from the country, Reuters said.

The case has drawn attention as a test of free speech rights, with supporters of Khalil saying he was targeted for publicly disagreeing with US policy on Israel and its occupation of Gaza. Khalil has called himself a political prisoner.

The US alleges Khalil's presence or activities in the country would have serious foreign policy consequences.

A judge has ordered Khalil not to be deported while his lawsuit challenging his detention, known as a habeas petition, is heard in another federal court.

Khalil, a native of Syria and citizen of Algeria, entered the US on a student visa in 2022 and later filed to become a permanent resident in 2024.

In a court brief dated Sunday, the US government outlined its arguments for keeping Khalil in custody while his removal proceedings continue, arguing first that the US District Court in New Jersey, where the habeas case is being heard, lacked jurisdiction.

The brief also says Khalil "withheld membership in certain organizations" which should be grounds for his deportation.

It references a March 17 document in his deportation case that informed Khalil he could be removed because he failed to disclose that he was a political officer of UNRWA in 2023.

The UN said in August an investigation found nine of the agency's 32,000 staff members may have been involved in the October 7 attacks.

The US court notice also accuses Khalil of leaving off his visa application that he worked for the Syria office in the British embassy in Beirut and that he was a member of the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Attorneys for Khalil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One attorney, Ramie Kassem, a co-director of the legal clinic CLEAR, was quoted in the New York Times as saying the new deportation grounds were "patently weak and pretextual."

"That the government scrambled to add them at the 11th hour only highlights how its motivation from the start was to retaliate against Mr. Khalil for his protected speech in support of Palestinian rights and lives," Kassem said, according to the Times.



Bus Crash Kills at Least 21 in South of Iran

Rubble litters the ground at an apartment that was damaged in an Israeli airstrike at the Chamran residential complex, in Tehran on July 19, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Rubble litters the ground at an apartment that was damaged in an Israeli airstrike at the Chamran residential complex, in Tehran on July 19, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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Bus Crash Kills at Least 21 in South of Iran

Rubble litters the ground at an apartment that was damaged in an Israeli airstrike at the Chamran residential complex, in Tehran on July 19, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Rubble litters the ground at an apartment that was damaged in an Israeli airstrike at the Chamran residential complex, in Tehran on July 19, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

At least 21 people were killed after a bus overturned in the south of Iran, state media reported Saturday.

Masoud Abed, the head of Fars province’s emergency organization, said that 34 other people were injured in the accident to the south of Shiraz, the province's capital.

Abed said that rescue operations are ongoing and that additional information and final figures will be announced after the operation is complete and detailed investigations have been carried out.

He added that the incident occurred at 11:05 a.m., and rescue forces were immediately present at the scene.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

With nearly 17,000 casualties annually, Iran is among the top countries for road and street accidents. The toll is attributed to the disregard of safety measures, the use of old vehicles and inadequate emergency services.