A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Palestinian activist who led anti-Israel protests at Columbia University in the past year will remain in Louisiana, where he is being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while the court considers his case.
Federal agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil on Saturday night at his university-owned apartment with the intention to deport him. The Trump administration argues he poses a potential national security threat because of his involvement in pro-Hamas, antisemitic activities at Columbia. The former student, who graduated in December, is a permanent legal U.S. resident on a green card from Syria.
Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer, promptly filed a lawsuit to halt his deportation for what she considers an unlawful arrest. The litigation led U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of Manhattan to temporarily block the deportation for the time being on Monday. Two days later, the court held its first hearing in the case.
Judge Furman’s decision lets Khalil stay in Louisiana, where the Trump administration wants the case to be litigated by a conservative court. Federal prosecutors also see New Jersey as an alternative jurisdiction for the case. Khalil was briefly held in New Jersey before he was transferred to Louisiana.
Meanwhile, Khalil’s defense believes the lawsuit should stay in New York. His lawyers argue they have been unable to speak with their client since his arrest and say the ICE detention facility in Jena, La., wouldn’t allow a call until March 20.
Responding to their concerns, the judge ordered Khalil should be allowed at least two privileged phone calls with his counsel on Wednesday and Thursday. The judge also ruled that the prosecutors should file a motion to move the venue by midnight Wednesday.
Furthermore, both sides were directed to submit a joint letter by noon Friday revealing when they intend to submit written arguments. Khalil was not present at Wednesday’s procedural hearing.
Greer said ICE agents were acting on the State Department’s order to revoke her client’s visa, but when she told them that he only had a green card, they moved to revoke that instead.
“Last night ICE agents wrongfully arrested Mahmoud Khalil, claiming his student visa was revoked — even though Mahmoud is a legal permanent resident (green card) and not in the U.S. on a student visa,” Greer said on Sunday. “Confronted with that fact, the ICE agents detained him anyway.”
Khalil’s pregnant wife, who remained anonymous, also spoke about his arrest and pleaded for the release of her husband. She is expecting a child next month.
“U.S. immigration ripped my soul from me,” Khalil’s wife said Tuesday night. “Instead of putting together our nursery and washing baby clothes in anticipation of our first child, I am left sitting in our apartment, wondering when Mahmoud will get a chance to call me from a detention center.”
Facing progressive pushback in recent days, the Trump administration has defended its move to deport Khalil, which is the first deportation of many planned by the administration.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Khalil handed out “pro-Hamas propaganda fliers” on campus and repeatedly sided with terrorists by organizing anti-Israel protests that targeted Jewish students and disrupted classes.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio added this case is “not about free speech,” like Democratic lawmakers and Khalil’s supporters claim.
“No one has a right to a student visa,” Rubio said on Tuesday. “No one has a right to a green card, by the way. So when you apply for student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason, but I think being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down, and being complicit in what are clearly crimes of vandalization, complicit in shutting down learning institutions.”
Rubio previously said the U.S. would have “zero tolerance” for terror supporters and would move to revoke the visas and green cards of Hamas sympathizers.
Khalil’s arrest is part of President Donald Trump’s broader efforts to combat antisemitism on college and university campuses, especially Columbia. Last week, Trump vowed to imprison “agitators” and deport foreign students who engage in “illegal” protests. He also promised to pull federal funding from any educational institutions that enable vitriolic activities on school grounds.
Following through on the president’s threat, the administration’s joint antisemitism task force pulled $400 million in federal grants and contracts from Columbia with more funding withdrawals to come. The New York university was accused of failing to protect Jewish students from the rampant antisemitism that has proliferated on American campuses since Hamas’s attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, described the recent events as a “challenging moment for our community.”
“All eyes are on Columbia at present,” she said in a statement on Monday. “It falls to us to ensure our University, and indeed the values of higher education more broadly, survive and thrive.”