Mahmoud Khalil released from immigration detention following judge's order

A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of Columbia graduate and pro-Palestinian protest leader Mahmoud Khalil from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, where he has been held for more than three months.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey issued the order in a hearing after Khalil’s lawyer asked that Khalil be released on bail or transferred from ICE detention in Louisiana to New Jersey, where he could be closer to his wife and newborn son. Farbiarz ordered that Khalil should be released on Friday.

Khalil, 30, a leader of pro-Palestinian protests on campus, was the first of several such activists the Trump administration targeted for deportation over their views. He was released Friday at about 7:30 p.m. from a Louisiana detention center, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

“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,” Farbiarz said in issuing his ruling.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin made no indication if the Trump administration would follow the judge’s order.

“An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr. Khalil should be released or detained,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “On the same day an immigration judge denied Khalil bond and ordered him removed, one rogue district judge ordered him released. This is yet another example of how out-of-control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security.”

McLaughlin added: “The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews and damages property. An immigration judge has already vindicated this position. We expect a higher court to do the same."

Even as some other detained pro-Palestinian students have been released, including fellow Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi, Khalil has remained in detention since his arrest in March. He missed witnessing the birth of his first-born son while in detention.

On April 11, an immigration judge ruled that Khalil could be deported — a decision that Khalil’s lawyers have been fighting in court. The Trump administration can continue pursuing its deportation case against Khalil, but Farbiarz ruled that it must do so while Khalil is free from detention.

Khalil, a former green card holder born to Palestinian refugees in Syria, hasn’t been charged with any crime. In justifying his detention, federal officials have invoked an obscure and once rarely used provision of immigration law that allows the federal government to deport people who threaten the country's foreign policy interests — in this case the Trump administration's efforts to combat antisemitism.

Khalil was detained by ICE officials on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment complex. Shortly thereafter, he was transported thousands of miles away to the detention center in Jena, Louisiana.

“We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife, said in a statement.

“But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom.”

This story has been updated to reflect that Mahmoud Khalil was released Friday evening.