Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil Freed From ICE Custody In Louisiana

After spending over three months in federal immigration detention, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is finally a free man after being released on Friday  following a federal judge’s ruling that his continued detention was unconstitutional and unsupported by the facts. 

The decision marks a significant development in a case that has drawn national scrutiny over the Trump administration’s targeting of student protesters and its use of immigration enforcement to silence dissent, especially in regards to the humanitarian crisis and genocide happening in Gaza.

Judge Michael Farbiarz of the U.S. District Court in New Jersey ordered Khalil’s release on bail from the Jena-LaSalle Immigration Detention Center in rural Louisiana, stating that he is not a flight risk or a threat to public safety.

 “Khalil is not a flight risk, and the evidence that has been presented to me at least, is that he is not a danger to the community, period, full stop,” Farbiarz said from the bench.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and lawful U.S. permanent resident, was arrested on March 8 in front of his Manhattan apartment. Though he had not been arrested or charged for a crime, he was one of the first arrestees in Trump’s immigration crackdown targeting student activists. Following the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia, he had emerged as a prominent spokesperson and negotiator for the student-led movement, a position that his attorneys argue made him a political target.

“The court concluded there’s no reason he should continue to be detained given the serious harms that are happening, the chill that is happening to his speech and other people’s speech as a result of his detention,” one of his attorneys, Baher Azmy, told CNN.

The Trump administration had asserted that Khalil should be expelled because of his activism, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio entering a two-page memo as evidence stating that he found that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. “would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”

Judge Farbiarz, however, found that the facts proved otherwise, ruling that the Secretary of State’s assertion was not a valid basis for ongoing detention. 

“It’s overwhelmingly unlikely, I found, that a lawful permanent resident would be detained on the remaining available charge” of failing to accurately fill out an immigration application,” the judge said during Friday’s hearing. 

Mahmoud Khalil had been accused of providing incomplete information on his green card application, an allegation his lawyers strongly disputed. Despite an earlier ruling allowing the government to pursue that charge, the court found Friday that continued detention was not warranted.

“There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner,” Farbiarz noted. “And of course, that would be unconstitutional.”

Emerging from the Louisiana detention center Friday evening, Khalil—wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf—raised his fists and smiled broadly as he greeted supporters and legal counsel.

“Although justice prevailed, it’s long, very long overdue, and this shouldn’t have taken three months,” Khalil told reporters. “The Trump administration are doing their best to dehumanize everyone here. Whether you are a U.S. citizen, an immigrant, or just a person on this land, doesn’t mean that you are less of a human.”

Khalil’s detention had taken place more than 1,000 miles from his wife, Noor Abdalla, and their newborn son, whom, until Friday, he had not yet met. Speaking on the decision via statement, she shared that the ruling has allowed her to finally breathe a sigh of relief knowing Khalil will be reunited with his family.

“After more than three months, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father,” Noor Abdalla said in a statement. “We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” she added. “But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom.”

During Friday’s hearing, Khalil’s legal team argued that the case represented “extraordinary circumstances” and was part of a broader pattern of using immigration enforcement to suppress free speech.

“I’m aware, of my 20 years of representing immigrants, of no other case where the government announced the day that it detained someone that they were detaining them in order to send a message that their arrest would be the first of many, that they were going after student protesters,” Khalil’s attorney Alina Das argued before the court.

Despite the administration’s request to temporarily block the release, Judge Farbiarz denied the motion.

Now free, Khalil expressed gratitude while also emphasizing that others remain unjustly held. “There are still many immigrants inside who are in a place where they shouldn’t have been,” he said.

While Mahmoud Khalil’s release is a significant victory for due process and the First Amendment, his case remains ongoing in immigration court, and his legal team is preparing to continue challenging the government’s underlying deportation efforts in the weeks ahead.

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