A detained Columbia University graduate threatened with deportation after the Trump administration claimed he poses a risk to US foreign policy is a former employee of the British government who was extensively vetted before working at the embassy in Beirut.
Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate from a Columbia University master’s programme, was arrested at home on 9 March as he returned with his wife from a dinner to break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“My husband was kidnapped from our home, and it’s shameful that the US government continues to hold him because he stood for the rights and lives of his people,” his wife, Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant, said in a statement read by her lawyer outside a New York court this week.
“His disappearance has devastated our lives.”
Khalil, a Palestinian born in Syria, had become a prominent face in protests on the Columbia campus over the last year. Following his arrest, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused him of leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation”.
The White House has not specified publicly or in court that Khalil has committed any crime, or how this invalidates his status as a US legal permanent resident. The Trump administration has instead sought to use a provision within immigration law specifying that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, “has reasonable grounds to believe that your presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”, according to a charging document provided to Khalil.
Andrew Waller, a former British diplomat who worked with Khalil at the UK office for Syria, a diplomatic mission housed inside the British embassy in Beirut, described Khalil as a thoughtful individual and highly valued colleague during his government service.
“This is a naked example of the US administration arresting someone for their political opinions, and I think the British government should be exercised about this,” he said.
“He is a former British government employee who was vetted and well liked.”
Waller added that the British government was entirely dependent on non-British nationals working at embassies worldwide to provide the language skills and local knowledge needed to operate. Khalil worked for years on the British government’s flagship grant programme that brings foreign students to study at UK universities, as well as in a support role for which he helped to inform and shape British foreign policy on Syria through his knowledge and Arabic skills.
“The British government relies on people like Mahmoud all over the world,” he said. “Without them the UK could not operate overseas. It could not conduct diplomatic activity without this raft of employees who do this kind of work.”
Waller said he was “disappointed” that Khalil’s loyalty to the government he served for years has not been publicly recognised by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office. The Foreign Office declined to comment, saying it did not discuss former employees.
“There is an element of loyalty here that is really important: If there is one thing Mahmoud showed while working for the British government, it is loyalty,” said Waller.
Columbia University did not respond to questions about how the campus administration intends to protect other students like Khalil, after it emerged that he emailed the university begging for legal protection in the days before his arrest.
The White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier this week that DHS was “using intelligence” to find other students who took part in campus protests over the Israeli assault on Gaza.
A spokesperson for Columbia University referred instead to a statement by the interim president, Katrina Armstrong, earlier this week pledging to “follow the law”, and underlining a “commitment to freedom of speech”.
International students at the Columbia journalism school were warned about angering the Trump administration by its dean, Jelani Cobb, and a professor of media law, Stuart Karle, according to the New York Times.
“Nobody can protect you,” said Cobb, advising them to avoid filling their social media with commentary on the Middle East. Karle reportedly warned the students to avoid coverage of protests of Khalil’s arrest.
Both Waller and Khalil’s lawyer, Samah Sisay, pointed to the extensive background checks and screening, including about his political views and those held by his family, that Khalil had been through in order to work for the British government, and then later to obtain a US green card.
“It’s completely absurd that US government is saying Mahmoud presents a threat to its foreign policy interests,” said Sisay.
“They don’t even say national security interests … they are not accusing him of specific terrorist or criminal activity, they are just saying a discretionary belief by the secretary of state is enough to deport him.”
Khalil was subject to extensive background checks to obtain a green card last year, said Sisay, which granted him legal permanent residency as the spouse of an American citizen.
“He would not have been granted it if they truly believed he was a threat. The only difference is a change in the executive, which is incredibly concerning,” she said.
Waller described the “rigorous security clearance”, that Khalil was subject to before he began work for the British government at the embassy in Beirut. He oversaw applicants for the prestigious Chevening scholarship, an academic fund for students coming to the UK.
Khalil rose up the ranks at the UK office for Syria before deciding to study for a masters degree at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Before starting work for the British government, Khalil would have been questioned about his political beliefs, said Waller.
“I would say, and I am sure the vetting officers would disagree, that if you’re going to work in a place like Beirut, they take that process a lot more seriously than some other countries,” he said. “Lebanon is a difficult place to work, and they take the security of the embassy there really quite seriously for obvious reasons. So it’s not a box-ticking exercise, it’s a considered process.”
Waller added that his friend and former colleague was motivated by a desire to help others after his family fled Syria in 2012.
“He is a political exile from Syria, who fled the oppressive regime and civil war there. Everything he has done has been driven by a sense of basic humanitarian mission and a sense of justice, to try and help people less fortunate,” he said.
The former diplomat also pointed to JD Vance’s comments during a visit by Keir Starmer, when the US vice-president described “infringements to free speech in the UK”.
“Given that the US has just reprimanded the UK on freedom of speech extremely publicly, the least the British government could do is to say they are concerned about Mahmoud’s case and the free speech violation it so clearly represents,” said Waller.
