Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University anti-Israel ringleader, has posted bond after the Trump administration was temporarily blocked from deporting him amid their continued effort to hold him on "foreign policy" grounds.
Khalil posted his $1 bond on Thursday afternoon. He has not been released.
The move came after U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz sided with Khalil on Wednesday, writing: "The government cannot claim an interest in enforcing what appears to be an unconstitutional law."
Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil talks to the press during the press briefing organized by pro-Palestinian protesters who set up a new encampment at Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus on Friday evening, in New York City, United States on June 1, 2024. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The ruling was a significant legal setback for the administration's efforts to deport Khalil, who has been held at a detention facility in Louisiana following his involvement in anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University.
The court’s decision will remain on hold until Friday morning, giving the government time to appeal.
Khalil, a green card holder, was arrested after leading student protests on the Ivy League campus. He has argued that his free speech rights were being "eroded" by the Trump administration.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorneys have argued that Khalil's free speech claims were a "red herring," saying that the 30-year-old lied on his visa applications.
Khalil, they said, willfully failed to disclose his employment with the Syrian office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he applied for permanent U.S. residency. The agency also accused Khalil of failing to disclose his work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and membership in Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil's removal from the U.S. The provision allows the Secretary of State to deport noncitizens if the secretary determines their presence in the U.S. "would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences."
A pro-Gaza ceasefire tent encampment at Columbia University on April 28, 2024. (Getty Images)
Rubio accused Khalil of participating in "antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which foster a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States."
"Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective," Rubio wrote.
Khalil has Algerian citizenship through his mother, but was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria.