WASHINGTON
Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil urged a US court Monday to allow public and press access at his upcoming immigration hearings.
Attorneys for Khalil, a US green card holder who has been detained for almost two months after speaking out in support of Palestine, filed two motions seeking to ensure "fairness and transparency" at his hearings.
The motions came days after the Trump administration admitted that Khalil was taken without an arrest warrant.
“Generally, a warrant of arrest must be obtained. However, an exception to the warrant requirement exists where the immigration officer has reason to believe that the individual is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained,” attorneys for the government argued in a filing in the court.
His legal team asked for access to electronics after the court only allowed government lawyers to have laptops in an April 11 hearing.
Despite federal policy guaranteeing lawyers the right to use electronic devices during immigration court proceedings, his in-person counsel was barred from bringing laptops or phones into the courtroom.
According to the motion, “the denial implicates issues of fundamental fairness in these proceedings and was particularly troubling because it occurred at a hearing of such enormous consequence for Mr. Khalil.”
In a separate filing, Khalil’s lawyers also urged the court to expand public access to future hearings.
During previous hearings, hundreds of members of the public attempted to observe remotely but were shut out -- 550 individuals were denied access to a Webex link on April 8 alone.
"What happened to Mahmoud Khalil is not unique -- detained immigrants across the country face barriers to a fair hearing every day,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana.
Khalil, who helped organize campus protests against Israel's war on the Gaza Strip, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on March 8 at his university-owned apartment in New York City as part of US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism.
He remains in detention in Louisiana and missed the birth of his first child after ICE denied a request for temporary release.