Above photo: Mahmoud Khalil. Writers Against the War on Gaza.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot detain or deport Mahmoud Khalil based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination.
In a decision hailed by his legal team as “a huge win.”
A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration cannot detain or deport Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination.
New Jersey District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz’s preliminary injunction came in response to Khalil’s habeas corpus petition. The injunction is stayed until Friday morning, allowing the government’s lawyers time to appeal.
In addition to granting the request, the court ruled that it was unconstitutional to detain or deport someone based on their political advocacy.
In previous court filings, Rubio has cited an obscure provision from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, claiming that Khalil’s activism threatened the United States’ foreign policy objectives.
“Today’s ruling is a huge win for the Constitution and the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike,” said Brett Max Kaufman, a member of Khalil’s legal team and senior counsel in the ACLU’s Center for Democracy. “No one should be imprisoned or deported for their political beliefs, and the three months that Mahmoud has spent in detention are an affront to the freedoms that this country is supposed to stand for.”
“This is the news we’ve been waiting over three months for. Mahmoud must be released immediately and safely returned home to New York to be with me and our newborn baby, Deen,” said Khalil’s wife Dr. Noor Abdalla, in a statement. “True justice would mean Mahmoud was never taken away from us in the first place, that no Palestinian father, from New York to Gaza, would have to endure the painful separation of prison walls like Mahmoud has. I will not rest until Mahmoud is free, and hope that he can be with us to experience his first Father’s Day at home in New York with Deen in his arms.”
The judge’s decision comes just days after Khalil’s attorneys filed extensive new evidence detailing the suffering their client has endured as a result of his detention.
“The most immediate and visceral harms I have experienced directly relate to the birth of my son, Deen. Instead of holding my wife’s hand in the delivery room, I was crouched on a detention center floor, whispering through a crackling phone line as she labored alone,” said Khalil, in a declaration that was included in the filing. “I listened to her pain, trying to comfort her while 70 other men slept around me. When I heard my son’s first cries, I buried my face in my arms so no one would see me weep.”
Farbiarz’s ruling does not guarantee Khalil’s release from detention, as the decision has no impact on whether he can be deported for reasons outside of Rubio’s determination.
Khalil was detained by federal agents at his New York City apartment on March 8 and flown to a detention facility in Louisiana, where he has been held ever since. He was a permanent U.S. resident, but his green card and student visa were immediately revoked.
Khalil’s arrest kicked off a vast crackdown on student Palestine activism that has included the detention of multiple students, although courts have already ordered some released.
Khalil recently graduated from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and had been a lead negotiator for student activists during the school’s Gaza solidarity encampment in the spring of 2024.
