Published On 5/23/2026
Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil – a graduate of Columbia University – pledged yesterday, Friday, to resort to the US Supreme Court after a federal appeals court refused to reconsider a ruling related to his case, which opens the door for the administration of President Donald Trump to re-arrest and deport this pro-Palestinian activist.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected, by a vote of 6 to 5, Mahmoud Khalil’s request to reconsider a verdict issued by a jury in Philadelphia, which concluded – last January – that the lower court did not have the authority to order his release from immigration detention last year.
Khalil was among the foreign students detained by immigration authorities over the past year on the grounds of their participation in pro-Palestinian activities at universities, as part of a broader campaign carried out by the US administration.
According to the ruling, Khalil may face the risk of re-arrest and deportation, after the Immigration Appeals Board – last April – rejected his appeal of his deportation order to Algeria or Syria.
Baher Azmi, Khalil’s lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said that they will ask the Supreme Court to consider the case and overturn the Court of Appeal decision, which he described as “dangerous.” He added: “This ruling authorizes the detention of a person in prolonged and brutal conditions of detention without the possibility of obtaining serious judicial review, in order to punish him and deter others from opposing American foreign policy.”
Welcoming the ruling
A spokesman for the US Department of Homeland Security said that the department will implement the legal deportation order against Khalil, calling on him to use an application affiliated with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for voluntary deportation before his arrest, indicating that he will never be given the opportunity to return.
Immigration authorities arrested Khalil in March 2025 in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan. He was considered one of the prominent figures in the protests in support of the Palestinians and opposition to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. He was later released from a detention center in the state of Louisiana in June, after a federal judge ordered his release.
Last January, the Court of Appeal overturned the release decision, considering that appeals cannot be examined before a local court, but rather through the process of appealing the deportation decision before an immigration judge.
6 judges – appointed by Republican presidents – formed the majority of the Supreme Court judges who refused to reconsider the ruling, while 5 judges – appointed by Democratic presidents – voted in favor of reconsidering the case, including Federal Appeals Court Judge Cheryl Ann Krause, who saw that the decision restricts the judiciary’s ability to protect the civil liberties of non-citizens like Khalil.
