A federal judge ruled on Friday that Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil can be deported. 

Immigration judge Jamee Comans said at a hearing that the government’s argument that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was sufficient to rule he could be removed from the country. 

The decision, issued in a Louisiana court, came 24 hours after the Trump administration presented new claims in its monthlong case against Khalil, a former graduate student who led last year’s anti-Israel campus protests against the war in Gaza and subsequent student negotiations with university administration.

A memo submitted to the court on Thursday, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, cited the president’s authority to expel noncitizens whose presence in the country could have adverse foreign policy consequences, regardless of whether they have committed a crime. It stated that the arrest and planned deportation are based on Khalil’s “participation in antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.” 

“Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote in the two-page memo, which was first obtained by the Associated Press. 

“My determination … is also based on … citations for unlawful activity during these protests,” Rubio wrote. 

The judge said that the government “established by clear and convincing evidence” that Khalil could be subject to deportation.

Khalil, who grew up in Syria but is of Palestinian descent, first came to the U.S. on a student visa, and later married a U.S. citizen and received a green card. He was arrested on March 8 at his university-owned apartment, without being charged with a crime. 

The ruling is a victory for the Trump administration, which has made a cornerstone of its higher education and antisemitism policy deporting foreign students accused of supporting Hamas and other terrorist groups, with Khalil’s detention being the first such public case. In the ensuing weeks, the White House has revoked more than 600 student visas — although reasons for many of those cases have not been made public. 

Khalil will not be immediately deported. According to The New York Times, his lawyers are expected to appeal in both Louisiana and New Jersey courts.