Immigration authorities did not have an arrest warrant when agents detained Mahmoud Khalil, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing this week.
The big picture: Khalil, a leader of Columbia’s pro-Palestinian protests, is a legal U.S. resident who has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since last month. His arrest sparked outcry across the U.S.
Zoom in: Government lawyers argue in the filing that DHS was not required to obtain a judicial arrest warrant before taking Khalil, a U.S. green card holder from Syria, into custody on March 8.
- The “officers had exigent circumstances to conduct the warrantless arrest, it is the pattern and practice of DHS to fully process a respondent once in custody,” wrote the lawyers in the document that was originally filed in immigration court Wednesday and submitted to federal court Thursday
- They argued agents had reasons to believe Khalil “would escape before they could obtain a warrant” when they approached him inside the foyer of his apartment building.
- Khalil was eventually served an arrest warrant after being taken into custody and transported to an ICE office in New York.
The other side: The revelation contradicts what agents told Khalil at the time of his arrest and what agents wrote in the arrest report, Khalil’s lawyer said.
- “The government’s admission is astounding, and it is completely outrageous that they tried to assert to the immigration judge – and the world – in their initial filing of the arrest report that there was an arrest warrant when there was none,” said Khalil’s attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, in an emailed statement.
- Van Der Hout called it “egregious conduct by DHS that should require under the law termination of these proceedings.”
Never forget: Cops lie. All. The. Time.
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/24/mahmoud-khalil-detained-ice-arrest-warrant