A US federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil on bail. Khalil has been in federal immigration custody for over three months after immigration agents arrested and detained him.
He was the first student targeted and arrested for deportation by Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters in the country, mostly on university campuses. Khalil is married to Noor Abdallah, who is a US citizen. The couple gave birth to their first child when Khalil was in detention.
Khalil has been in ICE detention in Jena, Louisiana. He was detained by immigration in early March at Columbia university.
Mohsen Mahdawi, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Badar Khan Suri, who were detained on similar grounds, were previously released. However, their immigration cases are still pending before the courts.
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US District Judge Michael Farbiarz while ordering his release, said that Khalil is not a flight risk nor a danger to the community, “period, full stop.”
“Together, they suggest that 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,” the judge said. “It’s ‘highly, highly unusual’ that the government is still seeking Khalil’s detention,” the Judge added.
Alina Das, an Attorney for Khalil, said that he is being punished for his speech that should be protected by the First Amendment.
“The government’s latest actions confirm what we’ve alleged in this petition all along, that retaliatory detention is the government’s goal, that the purpose of every step that the government has taken in this case has been to ensure that Mr. Khalil remains locked away until he is deported as retaliation and punishment for his speech and viewpoint,” she said.
Khalil was born in Syria to Palestinian refugees. He has a degree in computer science from the Lebanese American University.
According to his biography on the Society for International Development website, in his latest role, Khali managed the Chevening Programme for the British Embassy in Beirut. He offered scholarships to students for study in the UK.
Khalil is said to have moved to the US in 2022. Here he did a master’s degree at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
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Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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