U.S. Judge says government must release Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil, but has until Friday to appeal

Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

NEWARK, N.J. — A U.S. federal judge has ruled that the government must release Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student whom the Trump administration is trying to deport over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

But Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, will remain in custody until at least Friday, giving the government time to appeal, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey said Wednesday.

“The court’s decision is the most significant vindication yet of Mahmoud’s rights,” said Ramzi Kassem, one of Khalil’s lawyers. “But we aren’t out of the woods until Mahmoud is free and back home with his wife and child.”

Dr. Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife and a U.S. citizen, expressed hope he could be returned to New York in time to enjoy his first Father’s Day with his son, Deen, who was born while Khalil has been held in a federal detention center in Jena, Louisiana.

“This is the news we’ve been waiting over three months for,” she said in a statement provided by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is also representing Khalil.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the administration intends to appeal.

“Today’s ruling delays justice and seeks to undermine the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II,” Tricia McLaughlin, an agency spokesperson, said in a statement. “We expect a higher court to vindicate us in this.”

Khalil was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza. He was then flown thousands of miles away to Louisiana.

Khalil’s lawyers challenged the legality of his detention, accusing the Trump administration of trying to suppress free speech.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he can deport Khalil, citing a rarely used statute that gives him the authority to expel those who pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

Farbiarz had ruled earlier that expelling Khalil from the U.S. on those grounds was likely unconstitutional.

In his new ruling Wednesday, the judge said that Khalil had shown that his continued detention is causing irreparable harm to his career, his family and his free speech rights.

However, the judge put his order on hold until 9:30 a.m. Friday to allow the government time to appeal. He also required Khalil to post a $1 bond before he is freed.

Farbiarz cited Khalil’s statement to the court last week that the revocation of his green card has damaged his career prospects, including a decision by Oxfam International to rescind a job offer to serve as a policy adviser. The judge also noted that the decision deterred Khalil from engaging in constitutionally protected protests.

“The Court finds as a matter of fact that the Petitioner’s career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled -- and this adds up to irreparable harm,” the judge wrote.

Farbiarz noted in his ruling that the government has also argued it is detaining and deporting Khalil in part because of alleged omissions on his green card application.

But the judge said evidence presented by his attorneys showed lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained for such a thing.

Khalil, in his statement to the court last week, also disputed that he wasn’t forthcoming on the application.

For example, he said he was never employed by or served as an “officer” of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, as the administration claims, but completed an internship approved by the university as part of his graduate studies.

The judge’s decision comes after several other legal residents targeted for their activism have been released from custody, including another Palestinian student at Columbia, Mohsen Mahdawi; a Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk; and a Georgetown University scholar, Badar Khan Suri.

Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia, but the Trump administration has argued that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country. They say such protesters express views that are antisemitic and “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Khalil, then an international affairs graduate student, served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists. He wasn’t among the demonstrators arrested, but his prominence in news coverage and willingness to speak publicly made him a target of critics.

The White House accused Khalil of “siding with terrorists,” but has yet to give any evidence for the claim.