Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia University graduate whom the Trump administration is seeking to deport for alleged terror ties, neglected to mention on his application for permanent resident status that he had worked for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, per a U.S. Justice Department court filing on Sunday.
JNS asked Tammy Bruce, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman, at the department’s press briefing on Monday about whether such an omission could negatively impact one’s chance or receiving a green card.
“Certainly not commenting on any particular filing or any particular case. If you lie in your efforts to come to the United States to get a visa for any reason, or for a green card, maybe there haven’t been repercussions, or we haven’t done things properly in the past,” Bruce told JNS.
“A lot of things have changed with the election of Donald Trump as the American people have said, ‘What has happened in the past is now unacceptable,’” she said. “We see the impact on people’s lives, everybody’s lives, and we now—it’s not anything new. We want to have the order back. We want to have the rules, the expectations, the values back to how we make our decisions.”
UNRWA claims that Khalil was an unpaid intern at the agency from June to November of 2023.
Also during the briefing, Bruce was asked if Israel consulted with the United States before renewing its ground operations in Gaza. “If there was a conversation about that, it is not something that I’m going to share the details with anybody anywhere,” she said.
“Hamas could release the hostages, which they still have, and the bodies of those that they’ve killed, and they could lay down their arms, and the suffering would end,” Bruce said. “Decisions have been getting made that have stopped the fighting, that have given us the first glimmer of hope in ages, and we’re going to continue that kind of work, because we do care.”
“We are determined to get peace, and we’re the closest we’ve been in most areas than we’ve been in ages,” she added. “That needs to continue.”
Bruce also declined to say that Israel was guilty of war crimes for the killing of two men said to be Gazan journalists.
“Every single thing that’s happening is a result of Hamas and its choices to drag that region down into a level of suffering that has been excruciating and has caused innumerable deaths,” she said. “We stand by Israel and its needs as it defends itself through this period of time.”