When federal immigration agents took Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil into custody earlier this month, protests broke out claiming the government violated his first amendment right to free speech. Leading pro-Palestinian protests at the New York City university is not a violation of the law and does not justify the deportation of a legal U.S. resident, his supporters and legal team have argued. In recent days, however, the Department of Justice quietly added new charges to their case, alleging Khalil also broke the law by failing to report his membership in certain organizations when he applied for residency. “Regardless of his allegations concerning political speech, Khalil withheld membership in certain organizations and failed to disclose continuing employment by the Syria Office in the British Embassy in Beirut,” federal investigators argue in newly filed court papers. “It is black-letter law that misrepresentations in this context are not protected speech. Thus, Khalil’s First Amendment allegations are a red herring, and there is an independent basis to justify removal sufficient to foreclose Khalil’s constitutional claim here.” The new charges alleged by the U.S. government, first reported by The New York Times, allow federal prosecutors to argue Khalil’s first amendment rights have not been violated. A member of Khalil’s legal team called the alleged new deportation grounds “patently weak and pretextual.” “That the government scrambled to add them at the 11th hour only highlights how its motivation from the start was to retaliate against Mr. Khalil for his protected speech in support of Palestinian rights and lives,” Ramzi Kassem told The Times. Meanwhile, Columbia University has agreed to changes in campus policy as spelled out by the Trump administration, with the hope of restoring the $400 million lost in federal funding. The university’s interim president announced Friday that the university would put its Middle East studies department under new supervision and overhaul its rules for protests and student discipline. It also agreed to adopt a new definition of antisemitism and expand “intellectual diversity” by staffing up its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, according to an outline posted on its website. Those changes appear to have done the trick: over the weekend, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Columbia was “on the right track” toward recovering its funding. Members of Columbia’s faculty were expected at a Monday rally to oppose the university embrace of Trump administration policy changes. Protests Mar 19 Federal judge moves Columbia activist's case to New Jersey Protests Mar 18 Columbia grad says detention is indicative of anti-Palestinian racism in the US Protests Mar 15 Nationwide protests planned after arrest of former Columbia activist by immigration authorities ...read more read less