The US government is relying on a rarely used provision of the law to try to deport a prominent Palestinian activist who recently completed his graduate studies at Columbia University, where he was a leader in last year’s campus protests.

A government charging document addressed to Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident and green card holder who is currently being held in a Louisiana detention center, said that secretary of state Marco Rubio “has reasonable ground to believe that your presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

Green cards are rarely revoked in the absence of a criminal conviction, but the foreign policy provision is the only ground for deportation listed in the document.

Khalil was arrested in front of his wife and taken into custody on Saturday night by federal immigration authorities at his university-owned apartment.

Khalil served as a lead negotiator for the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University last year, mediating between the pro-Palestine protesters and the university administrators. The arrest has sparked alarm from free-expression advocates who see the move to deport Khalil as a flagrant violation of his free speech rights.

A Manhattan federal court held a hearing on Wednesday morning after Khalil’s lawyers challenged his detention, but it ended without a decision on whether he would be released from custody. During the brief hearing, an attorney for the Department of Justice asked for a change of venue for the case, from New York to Louisiana or New Jersey, where he was held before being sent south.

The judge, Jesse Furman, asked the government to file written arguments by Friday.

Earlier this week, Furman, an Obama-appointed judge in New York’s southern district, issued a ruling preventing Khalil’s deportation while the court reviews the legal challenge. Khalil’s lawyers contend that the Trump administration is unlawfully retaliating against their client for his activism and constitutionally protected speech.

Outside the courthouse after the hearing on Wednesday, Ramzi Kassem, a member of Khalil’s legal team and the founder and co-director of Clear, a legal clinic at the City University of New York, said that the provision of