Judge Orders Trump Admin to Release Anti-Israel Activist Mahmoud Khalil from Immigration Detention

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to release Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-Israel activist at Columbia University who has been in immigration detention for three months as the administration looks to deport him for his role in orchestrating demonstrations on the school’s campus. 

Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident who has not been charged with a crime, was detained under a law that allows for the deportation of people who oppose U.S. foreign policy objectives.

Judge Michael E. Farbiarz previously ruled that the law did not justify Khalil’s detention, and found on Friday that additional allegations against Khalil, including that he omitted his past work for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other organizations when applying to become a permanent U.S. resident last year, did not require him to be detained. He ordered the administration to release Khalil on bail.

Farbiarz said Khalil is not a flight risk or a danger to the community, “period, full stop.” He said it’s “highly, highly unusual” that the government is still keeping Khalil in detention.

“Together, they suggest that there is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner — and, of course, that would be unconstitutional,” the judge said.

Khalil was taken into custody by immigration authorities on March 8, with federal officials saying he led activities on campus “aligned to Hamas.”

Khalil entered the U.S. on a student visa in December 2022 and obtained his green card in November 2024, according to the DOJ.

His attorneys have argued his detention is a violation of his due process and First Amendment rights. But the DOJ contends free speech doesn’t protect actions that conflict with U.S. foreign policy.

The federal government says it has evidence that Khalil actively supported Hamas, although he has not been found to have provided material support to the Palestinian terror group.

After uncovering Khalil’s alleged omission about his past work for the UNRWA when applying to become a permanent resident last year, the DOJ argued it is “black-letter law that misrepresentations in this context are not protected speech.”

“Thus, Khalil’s First Amendment allegations are a red herring, and there is an independent basis to justify removal sufficient to foreclose Khalil’s constitutional claim here,” a DOJ court filing reads.

The State Department has revoked 300 or more student visas, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card,” Rubio said.

Khalil previously published an op-ed in the Columbia Spectator student newspaper as dictated to his lawyer from a detention center in Louisiana, in which he called his ICE arrest an “abduction.”

“It is incumbent upon each of you to reclaim the University and join the student movement to carry forward the work of the past year,” he wrote to the students of Columbia. Khalil has since graduated from the university.