USA
Judge lacked authority to release anti-Israel Columbia activist from ICE detention, appeals court rules
Mahmoud Khalil was released from immigration custody in June
January 16, 2026 15:20
Mahmoud Khalil was released from immigration custody in June
January 16, 2026 15:20The judge who released from ICE custody Mahmoud Khalil – the Columbia graduate who led the anti-Israel protests on university’s campus in 2024 – did not have the authority to do so, a federal appeals court has reportedly ruled.
A panel of judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit yesterday ruled 2-1 to order the dismissal of an action that Khalil filed against the US Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, challenging his detention, according to US media.
This vacated the lower court’s release order and cleared the way for immigration authorities to potentially detain him again, the New York Post reported.
US circuit judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas wrote that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, Khalil’s claims must be raised through a petition for review following a final order of removal, rather than in a district court lawsuit.
“Our holdings vindicate essential principles of habeas [whereby non-citizens may challenge whether their detention is lawful] and immigration law,” they wrote. “The scheme Congress enacted governing immigration proceedings provides Khalil a meaningful forum in which to raise his claims later on, in a petition for review of a final order of removal.”
Khalil – who was born in Syria to Palestinian refugees and holds a Green Card, allowing him to allows live and work permanently in the US, and who is married to a US citizen – led the divisive pro-Palestinian protests at New York City’s Columbia University, and was a spokesman for the campus’s controversial encampment. Federal agents arrested Khalil on March 8, 2025.
He was held at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana, until June 20, when US District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ordered the US Department of Homeland Security to release him from custody.
Khalil’s arrest and confinement received international attention and prompted condemnation from many quarters.
Speaking to the court that originally ruled the Trump administration could deport him in April, Khalil said: "There's nothing that's more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness.
"Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process.
"This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family."
Khalil's legal team repeatedly said evidence of antisemitism suggested by members of the administration was not presented in court.
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