Mahmoud Khalil was arrested without a warrant, DHS lawyers say

Zoom in: Government lawyers argue in the filing that DHS was not required to obtain a judicial arrest warrant before taking Khalil, a U.S. green card holder from Syria, into custody on March 8.

• The "officers had exigent circumstances to conduct the warrantless arrest, it is the pattern and practice of DHS to fully process a respondent once in custody," wrote the lawyers in the document that was originally filed in immigration court Wednesday and submitted to federal court Thursday
• They argued agents had reasons to believe Khalil "would escape before they could obtain a warrant" when they approached him inside the foyer of his apartment building.
• Khalil was eventually served an arrest warrant after being taken into custody and transported to an ICE office in New York.

The other side: The revelation contradicts what agents told Khalil at the time of his arrest and what agents wrote in the arrest report, Khalil's lawyer said.

• "The government's admission is astounding, and it is completely outrageous that they tried to assert to the immigration judge – and the world – in their initial filing of the arrest report that there was an arrest warrant when there was none," said Khalil's attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, in an emailed statement.
• Van Der Hout called it "egregious conduct by DHS that should require under the law termination of these proceedings."

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