A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump Administration to release pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil from an immigration detention center where he had been held for more than three months, ruling that his confinement was likely an unconstitutional punishment for his political speech.
The decision marks a significant victory for Khalil, a legal permanent resident and former Columbia University student who became the first activist to be arrested and detained by the Trump Administration earlier this year as part of its crackdown on alleged antisemitism.
U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz said that the government had failed to demonstrate that Khalil posed a flight risk or danger to the community, and questioned whether its shifting justifications for his detention were a cover for retaliating against his public views.
The ruling is the latest in a string of legal defeats for the Trump Administration, which has relied on a seldom-used provision of immigration law that allows the Secretary of State to order the removal of a noncitizen deemed a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests. In a March memo, Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Khalil of participating in “antisemitic protests” and fostering a “hostile environment for Jewish students.”
Khalil’s lawyers said the government’s claims mischaracterized his views and cited his repeated public statements condemning antisemitism and supporting solidarity between Jewish and Palestinian communities. “The liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand in hand,” Khalil said in one interview referenced in court.
Khalil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at his New York apartment on March 8. He has not been charged with any crime. The government’s initial case for his detention was based on the foreign policy provision, which Judge Farbiarz found likely unconstitutional last month due to its vagueness. After that, prosecutors argued that Khalil had committed paperwork errors on his green card application—but Farbiarz rejected that rationale as well, noting that immigrants are “virtually never” detained on that basis alone.
The decision clears the way for Khalil to return to his home in New York, where his wife Noor Abdalla recently gave birth to their first child—a moment he missed while in custody at a remote ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana. In a statement, Abdalla described the ruling as a “sigh of relief” but noted that it “does not begin to address the injustices the Trump Administration has brought upon our family, and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians.”
While the judge’s ruling orders Khalil to be freed from detention, the Trump Administration could still continue its efforts to deport him. An immigration judge in Louisiana has already ruled that he can be removed from the U.S. as a national security risk, a decision his legal team is challenging.
Read more: Inside Donald Trump’s Mass Deportation Operation
Khalil’s case has become emblematic of the Trump Administration’s approach to dissent on college campuses. Since his arrest, several foreign students and academics have been targeted under the foreign policy statute. Judges have ordered the release of others, including Georgetown researcher Badar Khan Suri, Tufts Ph.D. candidate Rumeysa Ozturk, and fellow Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi, all of whom were subsequently freed.
In each case, courts have questioned whether the Administration was using immigration enforcement as a tool to punish political speech—particularly criticism of Israel.
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