US judge orders release of pro-Palestinian activist Khalil

NEW YORK – A US judge ordered on June 20 that Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil be released immediately from immigration custody, a major victory for rights groups that challenged what they called the Trump administration's unlawful targeting of a pro-Palestinian activist.

Mr Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests

against Israel’s war on Gaza, was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan on March 8. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has called the protests anti-Semitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part. Mr Khalil became the first target of this policy.

After hearing oral arguments from lawyers for Mr Khalil and for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ordered DHS to release him from custody at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana by June 20.

Judge Farbiarz said the government had made no attempt to rebut evidence provided by Mr Khalil’s lawyers that he was not a flight risk nor a danger to the public.

“There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner (Khalil),” the judge said as he ruled from the bench, adding that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional.

Mr Khalil was the latest in a string of foreign pro-Palestinian students arrested in the US starting in March who have subsequently been released by a judge. They include Mr Mohsen Mahdawi and Ms Rumeysya Ozturk.

Mr Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the US, says he is being punished for his political speech in violation of the US Constitution’s First Amendment. He condemned anti-Semitism and racism in interviews with CNN and other news outlets in 2024. 

The Syrian-born activist plans to return to New York to be with his wife, Dr Noor Abdalla, and their son, who was born during Mr Khalil’s 104 days in detention.

“This ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others,” Dr Abdalla said in a statement. “Today, we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom.”

The White House condemned the decision to release Mr Khalil, saying he should be deported for “conduct detrimental to American foreign policy interests” and fraudulently obtaining a student visa.

“There is no basis for a local federal judge in New Jersey – who lacks jurisdiction – to order Khalil’s release from a detention facility in Louisiana,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “We expect to be vindicated on appeal.”

Even though a federal judge ordered Mr Khalil be freed, the immigration proceedings against him continue.

The Louisiana immigration judge, in his case on June 20, denied his asylum request, ruled that he could be deported based on the government’s allegations of immigration fraud, and denied a bail hearing. Judge Farbiarz’s decision rendered the bail request moot.

Like others facing deportation, Mr Khalil has avenues to appeal within the immigration system. Judge Farbiarz is also considering Mr Khalil’s challenge of his deportation on constitutional grounds, and has blocked officials from deporting Mr Khalil while that challenge plays out.

Earlier this month, Judge Farbiarz ruled that the government was violating Mr Khalil’s free speech rights by detaining him under a little-used law granting the US secretary of state power to seek deportation of non-citizens whose presence in the country was deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests.

On June 13, the judge declined to order Mr Khalil’s release from a detention centre in Jena, Louisiana, after Mr Trump’s administration said Mr Khalil was being held on a separate charge that he withheld information from his application for lawful permanent residency.

Mr Khalil’s lawyers deny that allegation and say people are rarely detained on such charges. On June 16, they urged Judge Farbiarz to grant a separate request from their client to be released on bail or be transferred to immigration detention in New Jersey to be closer to his family in New York. 

At June 20’s hearing, Judge Farbiarz said it was “highly unusual” for the government to jail an immigrant accused of omissions in his application for US permanent residency.

Mr Khalil, 30, became a US permanent resident in 2024 and his wife and newborn son are US citizens.

Trump administration lawyers wrote in a June 17 filing that Mr Khalil’s request for release should be addressed to the judge overseeing his immigration case, an administrative process over whether he can be deported, rather than to Judge Farbiarz, who is considering whether Mr Khalil’s March 8 arrest and subsequent detention were constitutional. REUTERS