Can a green-card holder be deported? What to know as student is arrested.

Politics

On Monday, a federal judge barred the administration from deporting Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil pending a hearing Wednesday in New York.

By Niha Masih, Maria Sacchetti, Washington Post

March 11, 2025 | 2:59 PM

4 minutes to read

The high-profile immigration arrest of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, despite his status as a green-card holder, has raised questions about deportation risks faced by permanent residents, who are not U.S. citizens.

Khalil was arrested Saturday night while returning to his university apartment with his wife, a U.S. citizen, his attorney said in court records. President Donald Trump said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Khalil as part of his executive orders prohibiting antisemitism and alleged that Khalil sympathized with terrorism – without providing evidence.

Khalil’s attorneys have said he and other student demonstrators have been exercising their constitutional right to free speech to advocate for Palestinian people, who the Gaza Health Ministry says have suffered the brunt of the war between Hamas and Israel, with nearly 50,000 adults and children killed.

As a Palestinian graduate student, Khalil was a leader in negotiations between protesters and Columbia officials. Hundreds of protesters gathered Monday in New York to protest Khalil’s arrest.

Trump touted the arrest in a social media post, saying his administration will “apprehend, and deport” noncitizens who, in his view, engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”

On Monday, a federal judge barred the administration from deporting Khalil pending a hearing Wednesday in New York.

Can a green-card holder be deported?

Yes, under certain circumstances. But lawyers say it is more difficult to deport someone with a green card than to revoke a person’s visa or temporary status.

Lawful permanent residents can be subject to deportation proceedings if they are convicted of serious crimes, are found to have committed fraud in securing immigration benefits or have stayed abroad too long, among other reasons, said Elora Mukherjee, a law professor and director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.

Annie Lai, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine, said the process of deporting a green-card holder typically involves an order from an immigration judge.

“What can happen is a person can be charged as deportable. And then they would be able to have their case heard by an immigration judge,” she said, adding that the judge would then decide “if the person fell within a certain category of people who are considered deportable.”

That’s the most common way, Lai said, for somebody to lose their legal residency status. The person has the right to defend themselves in court and to appeal such decisions.

In past years, for instance, judges have stripped some U.S. military veterans of their green cards and deported them because they committed crimes. Under the Biden administration, there was a concerted effort to bring many of them back to the United States.

ICE officers arrested Khalil based on a section of U.S. immigration law that authorizes the secretary of state to declare him deportable because his presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences, according to a federal source with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the case.

“A decision to revoke somebody’s visa or to charge somebody as deportable is supposed to have a legal basis, not because of somebody’s views,” Lai said. The First Amendment protects participation in a peaceful protest or speaking up on issues, she added.

How is a green card different from citizenship?

A green-card holder has lawful permanent residency, one step below U.S. citizenship.

Unlike a visa or temporary status, green-card holders may live and work permanently in the United States. Most people obtain green cards through relatives, others through work and some through a lottery. The United States issues about 1 million green cards a year, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

After five years as permanent residents – three years if married to an American – they can apply to become U.S. citizens, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Being a U.S. citizen provides certain benefits that are not available to green-card holders. A citizen is eligible for a U.S. passport, and has the right to vote and serve on a jury, according to the agency.

Citizens have more options than legal residents to bring family members to the United States, and are eligible for more federal benefits and jobs, USCIS says.

Green cards also require renewal and incur fees.

Why has Khalil’s arrest drawn criticism?

Civil rights groups have condemned Khalil’s arrest and demanded his release, arguing that he is being targeted for his activism.

Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, described the arrest as “unprecedented, illegal, and un-American.”

“The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate,” he said in a statement Monday.

Jewish Voices for Peace, a national Jewish anti-Zionist organization, described the detention as “another step in the far-Right’s plan to target all who oppose their authoritarian agenda,” saying in a statement that the administration’s actions “endanger all people, beginning with those most vulnerable and those speaking out for justice.”

In 2018, under the first Trump administration, ICE detained or deported several prominent immigrant activists across the country, prompting accusations from advocates of improperly targeting political opponents.