
Immigration agents did not have a warrant when they detained Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil in March, the Trump administration conceded in new filings in immigration and federal court on April 24. The admission contradicts earlier claims by immigration agents, who wrote in their initial arrest report that they had a warrant, even as they repeatedly refused to show one when they took him into custody, said Marc Van Der Hout, a lawyer for Khalil. Van Der Hout said the agents’ actions amounted to “egregious conduct” and that it “should require termination” of the deportation proceedings against Khalil. “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,” Van Der Hout said in a statement.