Mohammad Sharif Khalil v. Ur Jaddou, Director, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, et al.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) identifies various “terrorist activities” that render a noncitizen inadmissible. 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(3)(B). The REAL ID Act of 2005 amended the INA to, among other things, add a ground of inadmissibility for receipt of “military-type training . . . from or on behalf of any organization that, at the time the training was received, was a terrorist organization (as defined in clause (vi)).” Id. § 1182(a) (3)(B)(i)(VIII). No other terrorism-related grounds of inadmissibility under § 1182 include the language “at the time” to describe the conduct at issue. In the early–mid 1980s, Petitioner Mohammad Sharif Khalil fought against the Soviets with the U.S.-backed and trained war-time ally known as Jamiat-i-Islami (Jamiat). Mr. Khalil disclosed his background with Jamiat and was granted asylum in 2000. In its 2019 denial of Mr. Khalil’s application to adjust status, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services claimed that beginning in the late 1980s, Jamiat qualified as an undesignated “Tier III” terrorist organization under § 1182(a)(3)(B)(vi)(III) of the INA, as amended by the PATRIOT Act of 2001. The question presented is: Whether the INA, as amended by the REAL ID Act, permits the government to retroactively deem a noncitizen inadmissible for receiving military-type training from or on behalf of a group that the United States did not consider a terrorist organization “at the time” of his training.