A Louisiana immigration judge said Friday that Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil – a legal permanent resident – can be deported after the United States government argued his presence posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences.

Khalil’s attorneys said they will keep fighting. They plan to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. They can also pursue an asylum case on his behalf.

The ruling cited a memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which he determined Khalil’s campus activism was antisemitic.