Supporters of Mahmoud Khalil rally outside the federal courthouse in Newark on March 28, 2025. (Reena Rose Sibayan for New Jersey Monitor)
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a Columbia University activist detained for partaking in pro-Palestinian protests cannot be held by the federal government over allegations that his presence in the United States undermines the nation’s foreign policy interests.
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz issued the order Wednesday but gave federal prosecutors until Friday at 9:30 a.m. to ask the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to step in. It’s unclear if the activist, Mahmoud Khalil, will be released Friday if the government does indeed appeal.
“This is the news we’ve been waiting over three months for. Mahmoud must be released immediately and safely returned home to New York to be with me and our newborn baby, Deen,” Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife, said in a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union of New York. “True justice would mean Mahmoud was never taken away from us in the first place, that no Palestinian father, from New York to Gaza, would have to endure the painful separation of prison walls like Mahmoud has.”
If it stands, Farbiarz’s ruling, which comes on the heels of a previous decision that said the government’s push to deport Khalil was likely unconstitutional, could deal a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to deport dissidents.
Khalil was arrested by immigration authorities in March and has been held in Louisiana since. He’s fighting two cases to fend off his deportation — one in Louisiana and one in New Jersey, because he was being transferred through Elizabeth Detention Center when his attorneys first filed a petition for his release.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed Khalil supports terrorist group Hamas and called his presence in the country a national security risk. Rubio has cited a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil’s deportation.
Farbiarz noted in his Wednesday ruling that the government could argue that Khalil would have been detained anyway because he inaccurately filled out his lawful permanent resident application, which can be a basis for removal under very rare circumstances. But that argument won’t work, he said.
“Lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained pending removal for the sort of alleged omission” Khalil is accused of, the judge wrote in the 14-page filing.
Khalil, whose wife and newborn son are American citizens, has not been charged with any crime. He was among the first university students who were picked up by immigration authorities targeting pro-Palestine activists. Some students who were detained under similar circumstances have been released but still face deportation.
