Mahmoud Khalil released from federal immigration detention
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Pro-Palestinian activist Khalil walks free after US judge orders release
Mahmoud Khalil was a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. He was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has called the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part. The Syrian-born activist plans to return to New York to be with his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, and their infant son, who was born during Khalil’s 104 days in detention.”Although justice prevailed,” he said upon his release in the rural town of Jena, “it’s long, very long overdue. And this shouldn’t have taken three months” The White House condemned the decision to release Khalil, saying he should be deported for “conduct detrimental to American foreign policy interests” and fraudulently obtaining a student visa. “We expect to be vindicated on appeal,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement. The immigration proceedings against Khalil continue.
Judge: punishment in civil immigration matter unconstitutional
Judge finds no evidence Khalil is a flight risk or public danger
Khalil’s family in New York seeks transfer closer to them
JENA, Louisiana, June 20 (Reuters) – Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil walked out of a Louisiana immigrant detention center on Friday, hours after a judge ordered his release, a major victory for rights groups that challenged what they called the Trump administration’s unlawful targeting of a pro-Palestinian activist.
“Although justice prevailed,” he said upon his release in the rural town of Jena, “it’s long, very long overdue. And this shouldn’t have taken three months.”
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On March 8 Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has called the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part. Khalil became the first target of this policy.
After hearing oral arguments from lawyers for Khalil and for the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ordered DHS to release him from custody at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana by 6:30 p.m. (2330 GMT) on Friday.
Farbiarz said the government had made no attempt to rebut evidence provided by Khalil’s lawyers that he was not a flight risk nor a danger to the public.
“There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner,” Farbiarz said, referring to Khalil as he ruled from the bench, adding that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional.
Khalil is the latest in a string of foreign pro-Palestinian students arrested in the U.S. starting in March who have subsequently been released by judges. They include Mohsen Mahdawi and Rumeysya Ozturk.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the U.S., says he is being punished for his political speech, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Khalil condemned antisemitism and racism in interviews with CNN and other news outlets last year.
The Syrian-born activist plans to return to New York to be with his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, and their infant son, who was born during Khalil’s 104 days in detention.
“This ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others,” Abdalla said in a statement. “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.”
The White House condemned the decision to release Khalil, saying 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. “We expect to be vindicated on appeal.”
Item 1 of 6 Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil gestures as he is released from immigration custody in Jena, Louisiana, U.S. June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Kathleen Flynn [1/6] Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil gestures as he is released from immigration custody in Jena, Louisiana, U.S. June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Kathleen Flynn Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab
The immigration proceedings against Khalil continue.
Khalil, wearing a keffiyeh and raising his right fist as he approached journalists outside the detention center, condemned what he called the Trump administration’s racist immigration policies. He said he was leaving behind hundreds of men housed at the detention center who should not be there.
“The Trump administration are doing their best to dehumanize everyone here,” he said outside the gates of the facility. “No one is illegal, no human is illegal.”
Khalil said that his time in detention had changed him.
“Once you enter there, you see a different reality,” he said. “A different reality about this country that supposedly champions human rights and liberty and justice.”
The Louisiana immigration judge in his case had denied his asylum request on Friday, ruling he could be deported based on the government’s allegations of immigration fraud, and denied a bail hearing. Farbiarz’s decision rendered the bail request moot.
Like others facing deportation, Khalil has avenues to appeal within the immigration system. Farbiarz is also considering Khalil’s challenge of his deportation on constitutional grounds, and has blocked officials from deporting Khalil while that challenge plays out.
Earlier this month, Farbiarz ruled the government was violating Khalil’s free speech rights by detaining him under a little-used law granting the U.S. secretary of state power to seek deportation of non-citizens whose presence in the country was deemed adverse to U.S. foreign policy interests.
On June 13, the judge declined to order Khalil’s release from a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, after Trump’s administration said Khalil was being held on a separate charge that he withheld information from his application for lawful permanent residency.
Khalil’s lawyers deny that allegation and say people are rarely detained on such charges. On June 16, they urged Farbiarz to grant a separate request from their client to be released on bail or be transferred to immigration detention in New Jersey to be closer to his family in New York.
At Friday’s hearing, Farbiarz said it was “highly unusual” for the government to jail an immigrant accused of omissions in his application for U.S. permanent residency.
Khalil, 30, became a U.S. permanent resident last year, and his wife and newborn son are U.S. citizens.
Trump administration lawyers wrote in a June 17 filing that Khalil’s request for release should be addressed to the judge overseeing his immigration case, an administrative process over whether he can be deported, rather than to Farbiarz, who is considering whether Khalil’s March 8 arrest and subsequent detention were constitutional.
Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Kathleen Flynn in Jena, and Andrew Hay and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Nick Zieminski, David Gregorio and William Mallard
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Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil released from ICE detention in Louisiana
Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil is released from immigration detention. A federal judge ordered his release while his immigration proceedings play out. Khalil spent months in custody as the Trump administration attempted to deport him due to “foreign policy” concerns. He was among a group of Columbia students who protested Israel’s war in Gaza in 2024, and has a green card. The White House said prior to his release the administration would appeal the decision, and look forward to removing Khalil from the U.S. “We can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen,” his wife Noor Abdalla said in a statement released by the ACLU, which represents Khalil. “Now I can actually hug him and Noor, my wife, without looking at the clock,” Khalil said Friday, when asked about his plans after returning home. “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything scarier than that,” Abdalla told “CBS Sunday Morning” in March.
Khalil — who spent months in custody as the Trump administration attempted to deport him due to “foreign policy” concerns — addressed reporters after leaving the facility, ahead of his return to New York.
“Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this,” Khalil said.
During a hearing hours earlier before U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, Khalil’s attorneys asked him to free Khalil from detention or transfer him to New Jersey. The New Jersey judge agreed, determining that Khalil is not a threat to the community, not a flight risk and that his detention has been “highly unusual.”
Farbiarz denied the government’s request to stay his decision. In his written order, Farbiarz said “the Petitioner shall be released from immigration custody today.” His bail conditions restrict his travel to New Jersey, New York, Michigan, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana, where he must attend all of his immigration proceedings.
Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, center, speaks after his release from federal immigration detention in Jena, Louisiana, on June 20, 2025. Matthew Hinton / AP
Khalil is a green card holder who was detained by immigration agents in March. His wife Noor Abdalla was 8 months pregnant with their first child when he was first taken into custody, and gave birth to a baby boy in April. Immigration officials denied Khalil’s request for temporary release to attend the birth, and a judge later allowed him to see his son during a brief visit last month.
“Now I can actually hug him and Noor, my wife, without looking at the clock,” Khalil said Friday, when asked about his plans after returning home.
“My husband was taken away from me in the middle of the night. It was one of the most terrifying times of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything scarier than that,” Abdalla said in a March interview with “CBS Sunday Morning.”
In a statement released by the ACLU, which represents Khalil, Abdalla said “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.”
Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman for the White House, said prior to his release the administration would appeal.
“[T]here 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,” Jackson said. “We expect to be vindicated on appeal, and look forward to removing Khalil from the United States.”
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the order was “yet another example of how out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security.”
“The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property,” McLaughlin said. “An immigration judge has already vindicated this position. We expect a higher court to do the same.”
Khalil was initially detained under a determination by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that his “presence or activities would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.” Farbiarz ruled last week that Khalil cannot be detained simply based on that determination, but the Department of Homeland Security has kept Khalil detained based on allegations that he omitted details from his green card application. Farbiarz said the new justification wasn’t enough to continue his detention.
“It’s overwhelmingly unlikely that a lawful permanent resident would be held on the remaining charge here,” Farbiarz said, adding that “there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner” for his anti-Israel speech. As a graduate student at Columbia, Khalil was among the leaders of students who protested Israel’s war in Gaza in 2024. Khalil has since graduated.
“What all of that evidence adds up to is a lack of violence, a lack of property destruction, a lack of anything that would be characterized as inciting violence,” Farbiarz added, saying that he has given government attorneys ample opportunity to address the lack of evidence and that they have provided none.
During the hearing, Khalil’s attorneys said that a Louisiana immigration judge denied a bond hearing for Khalil and has denied asylum, in addition to finding him removable on Rubio’s declaration, conflicting with Farbiarz’s order last week.
“There has been a thick record developed here,” Farbiarz said, adding that he will not order electronic monitoring of Khalil.
contributed to this report.