Federal immigration agents did not have a warrant when they arrested anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil last month and defended their actions in new court documents, saying the arrest was legal.   Makes sense, not a matter for the courts.

     Khalil, one of the ringleaders of anti-Israel protests at Columbia University last year who the Trump administration is trying to deport, was arrested about six weeks ago from his university-owned apartment in New York City with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is part of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), telling him they were revoking his green card and student visa, according to Khalil's attorney, Amy Greer. He was then taken to a Louisiana detention center.

     Documents entered in a New Jersey court reveal a lawyer for Homeland Security wrote that when agents confronted Khalil on March 8 and asked him to cooperate while they tried to verify his identity, Khalil "stated that he would not cooperate and that he was going to leave the scene," the lawyer wrote.  The Homeland Security supervisory agent at that point "believed there was a flight risk and arrest was necessary," he said.

     Lawyers for Khalil disputed the government’s account of the situation and said Khalil’s wife went into their apartment to retrieve his Green Card only for the agents to arrest him. Khalil is a Palestinian raised in Syria and a permanent U.S. resident. Khalil’s attorneys argued that the Trump administration has shown no evidence that he refused to cooperate with agents during his arrest.  Greer, who was on the phone with Khalil and the arresting agent on the night of the arrest, said Khalil remained calm and complied with orders even as agents failed to show an arrest warrant. His lawyers say video released by Khalil's wife shows he remained cooperative.

     "Today, we now know why they never showed Mahmoud that warrant — they didn’t have one. This is clearly yet another desperate attempt by the Trump administration to justify its unlawful arrest and detention of human rights defender Mahmoud Khalil, who is now, by the government’s own tacit admission, a political prisoner of the United States," Greer said.