In a victory for the Trump administration in its initiative to oust aliens from the United States over their pro-Hamas agitation, the Third Circuit on Thursday reversed a New Jersey federal judge, who had intervened in the deportation proceedings of Mahmoud Khalil — the former Columbia graduate student who was a leader in the campus unrest after Hamas’s October 7 atrocities.
As has become customary, the division in the courts’ rulings reflects the partisan divide in the country over the president’s immigration enforcement policies. The district judge who intervened, purporting to bar the government from removing Khalil from our country, was Michael Farbiarz, a Biden appointee. The Third Circuit panel divided 2-1 in reversing Judge Farbiarz, with Judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, appointees of Presidents Bush-43 and Trump-45 in the majority, and an appointee of President Obama, Judge Arianna Freeman, dissenting.
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