Judge allows Trump administration to continue to detain Mahmoud Khalil

A federal judge presiding over Mahmoud Khalil’s case ruled on Friday that the Trump administration can continue to detain the Columbia University activist.

In his ruling on Friday, Michael Farbiarz of the U.S. District Court for New Jersey rejected Khalil’s request for release. The judge wrote that Khalil can remain in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, as long as the detention is not based on a determination by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the activist is a national security threat.

“To the extent the Petitioner requests relief from this Court, the request is denied,” the judge said in his ruling.

The ruling comes after Justice Department officials on Friday argued in a letter that while Khalil can’t be detained based on Rubio’s determination, according to the judge’s ruling, he can be detained for other reasons. The officials cited immigration-related statutes.

“The Court instead enjoined Respondents from detaining Khalil ‘based on the Secretary of State’s determination,’’ DOJ officials said in the letter. “That injunction does not interfere with Respondents’ authority to detain Khalil on other grounds.”

Brett Max Kaufman, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Khalil, said that the move is an attempt from the Trump administration to “delay justice for Mahmoud.”

“The government practically never holds people in detention on a charge like this, and it’s clear that the government is doing anything they can to punish Mahmoud for his speech about Palestine,” Kaufman said. “We will not stop until he’s home with his family.”

To justify Khalil’s removal, Rubio released a memo in April, citing an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. It allows the secretary of state to deport noncitizens if the secretary determines their presence in the country would result in “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

Rubio wrote in the memo that allowing Khalil, who led protests against the war on Gaza, to stay in the U.S. would create a “hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”

But the judge, Michael Farbiarz of the U.S. District Court for New Jersey, ruled Wednesday that the foreign policy grounds for Khalil’s detention are insufficient and likely unconstitutional. Farbiaz stayed the preliminary injunction until 9:30 a.m. Friday, giving the government time to appeal. And by Friday morning, Khalil’s legal team filed a letter, requesting the court to order his release.

“The Government has not filed a notice of appeal of this Court’s Order by the Court-ordered deadline for the preliminary injunction to be in effect,” the letter said.

Khalil, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and and was granted permanent U.S. resident status, became a widely recognized activist amid the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University last year. In March, he was abruptly arrested outside his student housing on campus and detained before the Trump administration accused him of leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Since then, his legal counsel has been challenging efforts to deport him. He has not been charged with any crime.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security has alleged that Khalil has acted to “glorify and support terrorists.”

In a declaration filed last week, Khalil called the claims “grotesque and false.”

“These were not just attacks on my character; they were efforts to erase my humanity,” Khalil said in the legal filing.

Amid his three months in detention, Khalil also became a father and fought for contact with his newborn son, Deen. Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, a Michigan-born dentist, gave birth in April. ICE previously rejected Khalil’s request to attend his son’s birth, court documents show.

“The most immediate and visceral harms I have experienced directly relate to the birth of my son, Deen,” Khalil said in the legal filing. “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.”

ICE also denied a request last week for Khalil to be moved from Louisiana to a facility closer to his family, with no explanation, emails show. The agency’s own policy requires detaining noncitizen parents or legal guardians, who are primary caretakers or have custody of minor children, in facilities close to their children.

“ICE’s directive recognizes that the government should have no role in destroying the family unit, and yet that is exactly what is happening here,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, which is part of Khalil’s legal team.

Khalil met his son for the first time last month, his attorneys said, just before an immigration hearing.

Khalil has drawn widespread support from pro-Palestinian activists nd free speech advocates, with his arrest and detention prompting protests across the country. Most recently, several celebrities who are also fathers, including comedian Mo Amer, actors Mark Ruffalo and Mahershala Ali and “Rage Against The Machine” guitarist Tom Morello, came together to read a letter that Khalil wrote to his son ahead of Father’s Day on Sunday.

“I am a Palestinian refugee, asylee to America, became a citizen in 2009, and in 2023 I had a son,” Amer said. “Mahmoud’s letter is like a dagger to the heart, and that’s why I am doing this.”