Mahmoud Khalil asks Supreme Court to block deportation
Pro‑Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has filed a petition with the United States Supreme Court seeking a review of a recent appellate ruling that could lead to his re‑arrest and removal from the country. On Monday, his lawyers submitted an emergency request for an immediate stay of the decision issued by the Philadelphia 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appeals court had concluded that federal law should have barred lower courts from ordering Khalil’s release from immigration detention in June 2025. Instead, the judges said his detention should first have been considered by an immigration court, which operates under the executive branch, rather than by a district court that belongs to the judicial branch.
Khalil, a permanent resident and former graduate student at Columbia University, became the first known student protester targeted for his pro‑Palestinian stance during President Donald Trump’s second term when he was arrested in March 2025 inside the student housing complex where he lived with his wife, a U.S. citizen. His case has turned into a flashpoint in the national debate over free speech on college campuses.
The petition could trigger a major legal confrontation over whether federal courts may step in when non‑citizens are detained in retaliation for speech protected by the First Amendment. Khalil’s attorneys ask the high court to rule that non‑citizens have the right to sue if immigration officials detain them as punishment for exercising free speech. “If the Trump administration can punish someone for their pro‑Palestine speech, this or any future administration can punish anyone for any speech,” Khalil told reporters at a news conference on Monday.
During his 2024 re‑election campaign, Trump pledged to crack down on the pro‑Palestinian student protest movement that had erupted in 2023, with Columbia University in New York emerging as a central hub for activism. Born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, Khalil served as a spokesperson for the protest groups. The Trump administration has described such activism as a threat to U.S. foreign‑policy interests and has argued that it has the legal authority to deport non‑citizens who take part in these demonstrations.
After his arrest, Khalil was transferred to immigration detention facilities in New Jersey and later Louisiana, where he remained for more than three months. If the 3rd Circuit’s ruling stands, he faces deportation to Algeria or Syria. In May, the panel voted narrowly, six to five, against reconsidering his case, but the decision will not take effect until Khalil has exhausted all appeals. He continues to fight the deportation in both the immigration‑court system and the federal district‑court system, where he has filed a habeas corpus petition. Both proceedings remain pending. In April, the Board of Immigration Appeals rejected his appeal in the immigration‑court track and issued a final order of removal.
On Monday, faculty and staff at Columbia University held a silent vigil outside one of the campus gates to protest what they called “abducted students” taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Demonstrators displayed placards bearing the faces of Khalil and fellow protester Mohsen Mahdawi, among others, and called for solidarity with those facing deportation while urging the university to reopen its gates to the public after they were closed during the protests.