No warrant needed to arrest Columbia activist due to risk of fleeing: US

New documents entered in a New Jersey court on Thursday show that the federal government defended its warrantless arrest of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil by saying agents feared he'd flee because he said he would leave the scene.

The documents were entered into the court record to defend against efforts by lawyers to win freedom for Khalil, who has been held in a detention centre in Jena, Louisiana, for six weeks.

In a document filed in Newark federal court, a lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security wrote on Monday that agents conducting surveillance of Khalil on March 8 were notified that he could be removed from the country because his presence or activities would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.

As Khalil walked on a sidewalk with his wife, a Homeland Security Investigations agent approached and identified himself, according to the court filing.

After his wife went to retrieve documents showing Khalil had lawful residence status, the agent asked him to cooperate while they tried to verify his identity, but 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.

In a release Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union contested the account, saying the claim he was about to flee was false and belied by video taken of the arrest by Khalil's wife, along with previous accounts of the arrest.

Marc Van Der Hout, a lawyer for Khalil, said in the release that agents told Khalil when he was taken into custody that they had an arrest warrant, and his lawyers only learned this week with the new government filing that there was none.

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. This is egregious conduct by DHS that should require, under the law, termination of these proceedings, and we hope that the immigration court will so rule, he said.

Amy Greer, a lawyer who was on the phone with Khalil and the arresting agent on the night of the arrest, said Khalil remained calm that evening and complied with orders even as agents failed to show an arrest warrant.

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.

Khalil is a legal permanent US resident and graduate student who served as spokesperson for campus activists last year during large demonstrations at Columbia against Israel's treatment of Palestinians and the war in Gaza.

He was detained by federal agents in the lobby of his Manhattan apartment on March 8, the first arrest in President Donald Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

The Trump administration has not accused Khalil of criminal conduct, but has argued he should be expelled from the country for his beliefs.

An immigration judge in Louisiana ruled earlier this month that the government's assertion that Khalil's presence in the US posed potentially serious foreign policy consequences satisfied requirements for deportation.