Judge says government must release Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil,
but has until Friday to appeal
[June 12, 2025]
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ and PHILIP MARCELO
NEW YORK (AP) — A 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.
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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.
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