Mahmoud Khalil, who has permanent residency in the U.S. and is married to an American citizen, was detained by ICE at his home over the weekend.
Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in his New York City apartment on Saturday for his involvement in the Columbia University campus protests last spring, will remain in a detention centre in Louisiana, for now, a New York judge ruled on Wednesday.
Before making a final decision, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, who blocked the government’s attempt to deport Khalil on Monday, requested that lawyers representing both parties submit a joint letter on Friday outlining their plans for further arguments in Khalil’s detention case.
According to NBC News, Khalil’s lawyer, Ramzi Kassem, argued in court that his client “was targeted for his advocacy for Palestinian rights” and that keeping him in Louisiana limited Kassem’s ability to defend him.
“Any communication with Khalil thus far has been monitored by the government,” he said.
Meanwhile, the government’s lawyer, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Waterman, requested that Khalil’s case be moved to either New Jersey or Louisiana.
Khalil, who has permanent residency in the U.S. and is married to an American citizen, was detained for a short time in New Jersey on Saturday before being taken to a facility in Louisiana.
His detention case is separate from proceedings he may face in immigration court regarding his deportation and green card status.
His arrest marks the first in a Trump-ordered crackdown on university students who participated in protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict last year. The president referred to those involved as “terrorist sympathizers,” declaring that they no longer had the right to remain in the U.S.
Khalil has no criminal charges against him, but according to the BBC, the Immigration and Nationality Act allows for the deportation of non-citizens who are “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests” of the U.S.
During a press briefing at the White House on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said authorities would not hesitate to deport visa and green card holders.
“This is not about free speech. This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way. So when you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason,” he told reporters.
On Tuesday, Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, called Khalil’s arrest “unprecedented, illegal, and un-American.”
“The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes. To be clear: The First Amendment protects everyone in the U.S. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate. The government must immediately return Mr. Khalil to New York, release him back to his family, and reverse course on this discriminatory policy,” he wrote.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside a New York City courthouse on Wednesday to protest Khalil’s arrest and the Trump administration’s wider agenda.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.