An immigration court judge has determined that Donald Trump’s administration can deport a Columbia University student activist for his involvement in pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus.

The administration’s claims that Mahmoud Khalil poses “adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States is “facially reasonable,” according to assistant chief immigration judge Jamee Comans.

The arrest of Khalil — who is currently detained in a Louisiana facility more than 1,300 miles from New York, where his U.S. citizen wife is imminently expected to give birth — has sparked international outrage and fears that the Trump administration is moving to crush political dissidents, starting with campus demonstrations against Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza and U.S. support.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked hundreds of student visas over campus activism, leading to several high-profile arrests of international scholars who are now awaiting deportation hearings in remote jails across the southern United States.

The judge is giving Khalil’s lawyers until April 23 to argue against his removal to Syria or Algeria.

“I would like to quote what you said last time that there’s nothing that’s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness,” Khalil said at the end of Friday’s immigration court hearing in Jena, Louisiana.