Syrian national Mahmoud Khalil didn’t waste any time doing what he does best — stirring up political turmoil and anti-Israeli hate in the U.S.
Just one day after being released from ICE custody, Khalil hit the streets of New York City, leading a protest, with chants of “globalize the intifada” and “Palestine will live forever.”
After hearing oral arguments from lawyers for Khalil and the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered on Friday that Khalil be released on bail from an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, after determining that Khalil would not be considered a flight risk.
That ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey came after a Louisiana judge had ruled that the U.S. government could deport the Ivy League graduate. The Trump administration is appealing Farbiarz’s preliminary injunction and Khalil’s release to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Department of Justice and DHS argued Khalil should remain in an immigration detention facility in Louisiana as his case proceeds through courts. Farbiarz said the government did not provide evidence to rebut arguments provided by Khalil’s lawyers that he was not a flight risk or a danger to the public, Reuters reported.
The Trump administration condemned the decision to release Khalil, maintaining he should be deported for “conduct detrimental to American foreign policy interests” and fraudulently obtaining a student visa.
“There is no basis for a local federal judge in New Jersey — who lacks jurisdiction — to order Khalil’s release from a detention facility in Louisiana,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement in the Reuters report. “We expect to be vindicated on appeal.”
Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the U.S., has said he is being punished for his political speech, in violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment. Khalil is a green card holder and married to a U.S. citizen, Dr. Noor Abdalla, and they have an infant son born during Khalil’s 104 days in detention.
The Department of Homeland Security alleges Khalil lied on his visa applications. Khalil, they said, willfully failed to disclose his employment with the Syrian office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he applied for permanent U.S. residency, Fox News Digital reported in April.
Footage of Khalil, a radical anti-Israeli activist was all over X, with Eyal Yakoby, a prominent voice on issues of radicalism and antisemitism on university campuses writing, “Mahmoud has no business being in America.”
Khalil returned to Columbia University on Sunday to lead another protest, where supporters surrounded him on the streets. Additional footage across social media showed him holding a Palestinian flag and leading a chant of “Columbia, Columbia, you can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide.”
Khalil gave a speech referencing the Trump administration’s attempt to deport him. He called this latest protest the beginning of a “longer fight towards justice,” Fox News Digital reported.
“The wave of repression that the Trump administration initiated with my detention was intended to silence the movement for Palestinian liberation,” Khalil said. “It was intended to scare people into silence. It was intended to distract us from the fact that the U.S. government is a killing machine in Palestine and across the world. But they completely failed.”
Khalil is a Columbia University graduate student and prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. He is known for leading pro-Palestine takeovers and encampments at Columbia and elsewhere in New York.
Farbiarz, a federal judge appointed by Biden in 2023, ruled he was “not a danger to the community” and ordered his release from a Louisiana ICE facility. He had been held there for over three months due to his pro-Palestinian activism and instigating disruptive sit-ins on campus.
The judge ruled the law used to detain him, which allowed deportation based on foreign policy impacts, was likely unconstitutional. Khalil faced no criminal charges, and his release followed legal challenges asserting his detention violated due process and free speech rights, Fox News Digital reported.
He was arrested in March at Columbia over his anti-Israel activism on campus, and an immigration judge ruled he could be removed from the country based on a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that said his campus protests were at odds with U.S. foreign policy interests.
Rubio cited a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act to justify his finding, and Farbiarz later prohibited the secretary from using that determination to deport Khalil.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also accused Khalil of failing to disclose his work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and membership in Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
The DHS has also alleged that he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” though Khalil has denied the allegations.
After anti-Israeli protestors stormed Columbia University’s library shouting “free Palestine” during the final week of classes in May, Rubio vowed to review the visa status of instigators and revoke them if they’re in the U.S. on a student visa.
In recent days, anti-Israeli activist groups and pro-Iranian protestors gathered in New York City’s Times Square, Bryant Park and the steps of the New York public library to protest U.S. strikes against Iran.
