Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil vows to resume pro-Palestinian activism after release from jail

NEWARK, New Jersey – Mr Mahmoud Khalil vowed to resume his pro-Palestinian activism as he returned to New York a day after he was released on bail from a jail for immigrants, even as US President Donald Trump’s administration said it will continue its efforts to deport the recent Columbia University graduate.

He arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on the afternoon of June 21 to cheers and ululations from friends and supporters.

Mr Khalil, 30, was reunited with his wife, a US citizen, and greeted at the airport by US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York.

“Not only if they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine again,” Mr Khalil said, holding a bouquet of flowers.

“I just want to go back and just continue the work that I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished.”

Mr Khalil, who recently graduated from Columbia University in Manhattan, was a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement that swept campuses in 2024.

Federal immigration agents arrested him

in the lobby of his Columbia apartment building on March 8, making him the first target of Mr Trump’s effort to deport international students with pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel views. 

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, speaking alongside Mr Khalil at the airport, condemned the Trump administration for what she called “persecution based on political speech”.

“Being taken is wrong. It is illegal,” she said. “It is an affront to every American.”

“Free Palestine!” Mr Khalil said, with a raised fist as he left the airport.

Mr Khalil was born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and became a US lawful permanent resident in 2024. Nonetheless, citing an obscure part of federal immigration law that has not been invoked in more than 20 years, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had determined that Mr Khalil and several other foreign pro-Palestinian students at US schools must be deported because their presence here could harm the government's foreign policy interests.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly conflates their criticism of the Israeli government, one of the United States’ closest allies, with anti-Semitism.

Earlier in June, US District Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey ruled that the government could not detain or deport Mr Khalil based on Mr Rubio’s determination, finding the Trump administration was violating Mr Khalil’s constitutional right to free speech.

On June 20, he

ordered the Trump administration to release Mr Khalil

on bail while he continues to fight the government’s deportation efforts and his lawsuit accusing the government of wrongful detention.

A spokesperson for Mr Trump said in a statement after the ruling that Mr Khalil should be deported for “conduct detrimental to American foreign policy interests” and for omitting or incorrectly describing his employment history on his application for form to become a permanent resident. Mr Khalil has said his application form was correct and the allegations of omission are spurious.

Also on June 20, an immigration court in Louisiana ruled that Mr Khalil must be deported. He will now challenge the decision in the immigration court, which is run by the US Department of Justice rather than the government’s judicial branch, through the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Trump administration appealed Judge Farbiarz’s rulings on the evening of June 20 to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. REUTERS