A federal judge in New Jersey has ordered that Columbia grad and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil be freed from detention, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him in the lobby of his apartment building on March 8th, 2025, transporting him down to a federal detention center in Louisiana. The judge in the case, Michael Farbiarz of the U.S. District Court for New Jersey, said in a phone hearing on Friday that it was “highly, highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue to hold Khalil in detention.
Farbiarz denied the government’s argument that Khalil’s mere presence in the country could harm American foreign policy, while granting that he could be held on a separate allegation that he lied on his green card application, a claim that Khalil denies. Even as he granted some validity to the government’s argument regarding the green card application, Farbiarz layered that with skepticism: “There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish Mr. Khalil. And of course that would be unconstitutional.”
Government lawyers asked to delay Khalil’s release by a week in order to allow them time to appeal, but their request was denied. Khalil will be released on bail while his deportation case moves forward. Judge Farbiarz indicated that he did not believe Khalil to be a flight risk, and in his decision, added that he “is not a danger to the community. Period, full stop.” Nonetheless, he asked that Khalil’s Algerian passport be surrendered for the duration of his case.
Khalil was the first of several legal residents detained by immigration authorities for their pro-Palestine activism, with other high-profile cases including those of Mohsen Mahdawi and Rumeysa Ozturk, who have also since been released from custody after fighting their detentions in court as well. While arresting anyone for their speech appears to be a flat contravention of the First Amendment right to free speech, Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified the detentions through the Immigration and Nationality Act, claiming that the Cold War-era legislation allowed him to summarily deport Khalil and other activists. Claims based on that legislation have been rejected in all of these cases.
Mahmoud Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, was 8 months pregnant when he was arrested, and gave birth to their son while he was being held in Jena, Louisiana. “We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others,” she said in a statement. “But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family.”
