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NEW YORK — <\/span>Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student fighting deportation, have asked Judge Emil Bove to step aside from an appellate panel that could weigh in on his case because of Bove\u2019s previous role as a top Justice Department official involved in investigating student protesters.<\/p>\n Khalil\u2019s lawyers this week asked that the full complement of judges on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals \u2014 minus Bove \u2014 review and reverse a January ruling by a panel of three 3rd Circuit judges that put the Trump administration one step closer to detaining and ultimately deporting the pro-Palestinian activist<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the Justice Department\u2019s Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, Bove \u201cdirected immigration enforcement investigations and decisions against student protesters on college campuses,\u201d including at Columbia, Khalil\u2019s lawyers wrote.<\/p>\n Bove\u2019s immigration enforcement work<\/a> \u201cdemonstrates the existence, or at least the appearance of, a conflict of interest\u201d that should disqualify him from having a say in Khalil\u2019s appeal, they said.<\/p>\n Bove has been a judge on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since September<\/a>. Prior to his role at the Justice Department, he served as one of President Donald Trump\u2019s defense lawyers, representing him in criminal matters including the hush-money case in New York that ended in Trump\u2019s conviction on 34 felony counts.<\/p>\n The decision on recusal is up to Bove himself. The Justice Department, whose lawyers are representing the government in Khalil\u2019s appeal, \u201csees no basis for recusal but defers to Judge Bove,\u201d according to court papers.<\/p>\n Through the 3rd Circuit court, Bove declined to comment.<\/p>\n During the judicial confirmation process, Bove acknowledged that his Justice Department position, overseeing criminal and civil matters across the country, \u201ccould give rise to actual or potential conflicts\u201d and that he would recuse himself \u201cin cases that I was personally involved in should any such matter come before the court.\u201d<\/p>\n Khalil, a legal permanent resident, was the first person whose arrest became publicly known<\/a> during the crackdown on noncitizens who publicly criticized Israel and its actions in Gaza.<\/p>\n He remains in the U.S. with his wife, an American citizen, and their young son while he fights the January ruling that found a New Jersey federal judge who had sided with him didn\u2019t have jurisdiction to decide the matter. Federal law requires detention and deportation challenges to move through the separate immigration court system first, the ruling said.<\/p>\n The three-judge panel\u2019s 2-1 decision didn\u2019t resolve the key issue in Khalil\u2019s case: whether the Trump administration\u2019s effort to throw Khalil out of the U.S. over his campus activism and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional. He then spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail, missing the birth<\/a> of his son. <\/p>\n The Trump administration has accused Khalil of leading activities \u201caligned to Hamas,\u201d though they have not presented evidence to support the claim and have not accused him of criminal conduct. They also accused him of failing to disclose information on his green card application.<\/p>\n Khalil, who was born in Syria to a Palestinian family and holds Algerian citizenship, has dismissed the allegations as \u201cbaseless and ridiculous,\u201d framing his arrest and detention as a \u201cdirect consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n