Judge orders immediate release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil

A US federal judge has ordered the release of Mahmoud Khalil from immigration custody as his legal fight continues to play out. 

The Trump administration's deportation case against the Palestinian activist and US green card holder is not over yet, but now that he will be out on bail, Khalil will be able to hold his newborn son for the very first time. 

The decision is a landmark victory for rights organisations that said Khalil's constitutionally protected freedom of speech was not just trampled upon, but he was "punished". 

Judge Michael Farbiarz said on Friday that the Trump administration was unable to make its case that Khalil would be a danger to the public or a flight risk if released from an immigration detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, where he was secretly transferred after his arrest. 

Farbiarz, a New Jersey district court judge who is overseeing Khalil's case, last week ruled it was unconstitutional to detain and deport Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, for supporting Palestinian human rights, and that he should be released from detention.

The court gave the government until Friday morning to appeal.

The government then told the court on Friday that it would continue to detain Khalil in Louisiana, saying that Khalil had omitted information on his green card application.

"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)," Farbiarz said, adding that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter is unconstitutional.

While Farbiarz acknowledged that the government virtually never detains anyone on “misrepresentation” charges, he said he would uphold their appeal, and did not grant Khalil’s release.

The government will continue to try to deport Khalil as the case continues.

Who is Mahmoud Khalil?

When the student protests began at Columbia University following the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel and the subsequent war on Gaza, Khalil functioned as an intermediary between students and university administrators over the student movement's demands for university divestment from weapons companies profiting from Israel's war on Gaza.

Khalil did not participate in the encampments himself, opting instead to negotiate with administrators and offer guidance to the students.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained Khalil on 8 March. His wife, Nour Abdalla, was eight months pregnant. 

He became the first of a string of international student arrests outside their homes, often by plainclothes masked agents who would not tell them why they were being taken away, or to what location.

The one thing they all had in common, despite not knowing one another, is that they opposed the war in Gaza in a public forum or had significant ties to someone who did.

Khalil has been held at an ICE prison facility in Jena, Louisiana, since early March. His lawyers believe the Trump administration finds immigration judges in the south to be more favourable to the US government. 

In April, one of those judges said that Khalil could be deported even though he was a permanent US resident through his wife, an American citizen.

According to the Associated Press, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had insisted that Khalil's "presence or activities would compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest”.

Marc Van der Hout, one of Khalil's lawyers, said in a statement issued after that ruling that Khalil had been “subject to a charade of due process”, adding his deportation order was “a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponisation of immigration law to suppress dissent”.

Van der Hout then turned to Farbiarz to put a stop to that order.

The immigration court’s refusal to allow Khalil to attend the birth of his son was a double blow to his family.