A detained Columbia University graduate threatened with deportation after the Trump administration claimed he poses a risk to US foreign policy is a former employee of the British government who was extensively vetted before working at the embassy in Beirut.

Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate from a Columbia University master’s programme, was arrested at home on 9 March as he returned with his wife from a dinner to break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“My husband was kidnapped from our home, and it’s shameful that the US government continues to hold him because he stood for the rights and lives of his people,” his wife, Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant, said in a statement read by her lawyer outside a New York court this week.

“His disappearance has devastated our lives.” Khalil, a Palestinian born in Syria, had become a prominent face in protests on the Columbia campus over the last year. Following his arrest, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused him of leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organisation”.