Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, pro-Palestinian activist, released

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A Columbia University graduate held for months in connection with his pro-Palestinian activism was released on June 20 from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement custody, according to the student's legal team.

Mahmoud Khalil was released following a federal judge's order. His release marks a blow to the Trump administration's efforts to keep him in immigration detention following his pro-Palestinian activism.

“Justice prevailed, but it’s very long overdue,” Khalil said outside the detainment facility in a remote part of Louisiana. “This shouldn’t have taken three months.”

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of New Jersey said June 20 that the evidence submitted to the court − which government lawyers failed to contest − showed Khalil, a 30-year-old lawful permanent resident, was neither a flight risk nor dangerous, and his prolonged detention since March was potentially punitive.

It was an extraordinary turn of events in the ongoing case, the first of several in which the Trump administration sought to detain and deport students and scholars over pro-Palestinian speech or activism. Justice Department lawyers have said the secretary of state can order a person's removal if their actions threaten foreign policy interests.

Khalil took the opportunity to slam his treatment at the hands of immigration authorities.

"The Trump administration is doing their best to dehumanize everyone here," Khalil said of the detainment facility in Jena, Louisiana where he was held over 100 days. "The moment you enter this facility, your rights leave you behind... You see a different reality, a different reality about this country that supposedly champions human right and liberty and justice. But once you cross literally that door you see the opposite side of what's happening in this country under just the eyes of everyone."

Khalil said he planned to say more at a news conference in New York City on June 21 but in the meantime his priority was to get to his "beautiful wife and precious son."

Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife, gave birth to their first child on April 21 when Khalil was still in custody. They have only met briefly, he said: "The only time I spent with my son was a specified one hour limit that the government had imposed on us, so this means now I can actually hug him and Noor my wife without looking at the clock."

The sound of cheers at the offices of American Civil Liberties Union could be heard over the phone when a reporter called for confirmation of Khalil's release.

"Mahmoud endured a lot over the past three and a half months, but we believed from the start that this day would come, because what the government is doing to him and so many others blatantly violates the First Amendment," Brett Max Kaufman, a senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union and part of Khalil's defense team, said in a statement. "We couldn't be happier that he is finally heading home."

Khalil’s lawyers said he wasn’t a flight risk, noting he’s a permanent legal resident married to an American citizen and the father of a U.S. citizen, his 2-month-old son. They noted he had no criminal record and hasn't been charged with a crime.

“We can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father,” Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife, said in a statement after the ruling.

“We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family. ... But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom."

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the government planned to appeal the judge’s decision and looked forward to “removing Khalil from the United States.” In a statement, she said Farbiarz lacked jurisdiction to order his release from a detention facility in Louisiana.

“Mahmoud Khalil was given the privilege of coming to America to study on a student visa he obtained by fraud and misrepresentation,” Jackson said. “While in the United States, Khalil has consistently engaged in conduct detrimental to American foreign policy interests. Khalil is thus removable twice over.”

Khalil's lawyers have called the government's allegations "meritless."

On June 11, Farbiarz, appointed to the bench by former President Joe Biden, ruled Khalil couldn’t be detained or deported based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio's determination that he threatened American foreign policy interests. But Farbiarz didn’t release Khalil then, citing Justice Department lawyers’ argument that Khalil “fraudulently or willfully” misrepresented material facts on his application for permanent residency.

On June 20, Farbiarz said he opted to exercise his discretion to order Khalil’s release.

Farbiarz found there were “extraordinary circumstances” related to findings around Khalil’s flight risk and his “dangerousness” to the community, and detention would not be sought in such cases. He also raised concerns about the chilling effect on free speech and the ability of an immigration judge to take on such issues.

"Given all those factual findings, I am going to opt to exercise the discretion that I have to order the release of the petitioner in this case," Farbiarz said in proceedings.

The government did not contest evidence showing Khalil was not a flight risk or danger. Lawyers did not present any proof of violence, property destruction or incitement to violence, Farbiarz added.

Federal immigration agents arrested Khalil on March 8 in the lobby of his student apartment building in Manhattan as he returned home from dinner with his wife, who was 8 months pregnant at the time. He was taken to a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, where he had been held since, including through the birth of his first child.

A Palestinian born in Syria, Khalil was a student negotiator and spokesperson for protesters at Columbia in the spring of 2024, when protests against Israel's war in Gaza gripped college campuses.

Khalil’s case was the first of several high-profile incidents in which pro-Palestinian student activists were detained by immigration authorities and targeted for deportation. Rubio alleged Khalil participated in "antisemitic protests and disruptive activities" that "undermine U.S. efforts to combat anti-Semitism.” 

Khalil and his lawyers have disputed allegations of antisemitism. They said the Trump administration was attempting to silence criticism of Israel and falsely conflated pro-Palestinian activism with antisemitism. 

In his federal lawsuit pending before a district court in New Jersey, Khalil asserted his detention violated his constitutional rights of free speech and due process. 

“No one should fear being jailed for speaking out in this country,” Khalil's lawyer Alina Das, co-director of New York University School of Law's Immigrant Rights Clinic, said in a statement. “We are overjoyed that Mr. Khalil will finally be reunited with his family while we continue to fight his case in court.”

Farbiarz, in a signed order issued shortly after the hearing, said Khalil shall be released on bail on June 20.

Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, Paste BN.