Can a green card holder be deported? A look at the complex process amid Trump threats

Kate Linderman, The Charlotte Observer on Mar 13, 2025

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When Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Palestinian activist and Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, saying his student visa had been revoked, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Khalil was residing in the United States on a green card, NBC News reported.

His green card, in addition to documents held by other authorized residents in the United States, can not simply be revoked on command, experts told McClatchy News. A judge will need to deem him eligible for deportation, first.

“None of them (government officials) have the authority to revoke a green card after it has been lawfully conferred on an individual, University of Southern California Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic director Niels Frenzen told McClatchy News in a phone interview March 11. “They do have the ability, as appears to be the case, to start removal proceedings on the basis of a ground of deportability. And then that hearing plays out in front of an immigration judge and under the law.”

What to know about immigration court

Immigration court is separate from state and federal courts, Dara Lind, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, explained. Judges are appointed and are considered employees of the Department of Justice, and prosecutors are ICE employees.

ICE prosecutors will need to bring forth “grounds for removability,” she said, adding that the basis for these grounds allow for a significant amount of discretion.

In Khalil’s case, prosecutors are citing a clause in the Immigration and Nationality Act about foreign policy, according to court documents from the Department of Homeland Security.

“The Secretary of State has determined that your presence or activities in the United States would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” the document said.

Khalil has not been charged with a crime, but he can still be deported.

“If the Secretary of State determines that (a noncitizen’s) presence in the United States is bad for U.S. foreign policy, then that’s a ground for removability,” Lind said.

When it comes to an immigration judge determining if a noncitizen is eligible for deportation, Frenzen said extra protections are not afforded to a green-card holder compared to a student-visa holder.

“Generally speaking, the government would have to show the exact same thing by (establishing) clear and convincing evidence, which is a high evidentiary standard,” he said, adding that it is not the same standard of beyond a reasonable doubt that is used in criminal cases.

Typically, if a judge finds a person removable from the U.S., that’s not the end.

“You have the opportunity to show that you qualify for some form of relief under U.S. law,” Lind said.

This is most commonly seen in asylum cases, she said.

What power does the federal government have?

After Khalil’s arrest on March 8, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to social media to say they will continue to arrest those who participated in protests against the war in Gaza.

“We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,” Rubio said in a March 9 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

DePaul University professor Kathleen Arnold described the government’s power to deport noncitizens with authorized status as a “blank check.” Arnold directs the Refugee and Forced Migration graduate program at the university.

This power is given through the Immigration Plenary Power Doctrine, which allows Congress to have “unfettered power over immigration,” according to the doctrine.

She said the intention of the doctrine was for Congress to make immigration decisions, but Trump still has the right to take action.

“It’s an abuse of the system, but it’s not a good system in the first place,” Arnold said of Trump’s actions.

Khalil’s lawyers appeared in New York federal court March 12, asking a judge to release the student or return him to New York, the Washington Post reported. This appearance was part of a habeas corpus challenge and is separate from immigration proceedings, NPR reported.

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