Mahmoud Khalil was denied release on Friday by a judge who, earlier in the week, had rejected the Trump administration’s main legal basis for seeking to deport and detain the pro-Palestinian activist.
When he issued a preliminary injunction in Khalil’s favor Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said the government can’t deport him under Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that the former Columbia University student’s presence and activities put U.S. interests at risk. The New Jersey judge added that, since Khalil can’t be deported on that basis, he can’t be detained on that basis, either.
But the Biden appointee said in a new order against Khalil on Friday that the Trump administration now says it’s holding him on a separate basis, not the one Farbiarz preliminarily enjoined earlier in the week. The judge noted that he had previously said Khalil failed to successfully challenge that secondary basis and had never appealed that ruling.
The judge noted in his order that Khalil still has “a number of avenues” available to him, such as asking an immigration judge for bail.
Khalil’s case gained national attention in the administration’s immigration and deportation crackdown, which has featured arrests followed by court-ordered releases upholding free speech rights. The lawful U.S. resident has argued that his March arrest at student housing in New York City was “retaliation against his protected speech.” He said he’s not a flight risk or danger to the community, and he cited family hardship during his detention in Louisiana; his wife gave birth in April. He was born in Syria and is a citizen of Algeria. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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