A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that a judge had no jurisdiction to order the release of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, delivering President Donald Trump's administration a victory in its efforts to deport the pro-Palestinian activist.
The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opened the door to Khalil being re-arrested after it ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit he filed challenging his initial detention.
That holding came from U.S. Circuit Judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, both of whom were appointed by Republican presidents, who said that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, his claims needed to be instead heard through an appeal of a final order of removal from an immigration judge.
"The scheme Congress enacted governing immigration proceedings provides Khalil a meaningful forum in which to raise his claims later on — in a petition for review of a final order of removal," they wrote in an unsigned opinion.
Khalil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel's war in Gaza, was arrested on March 8 by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, had called the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part. Khalil became the first target of this policy.
Though Khalil was initially detained in New York, by the time his lawyer sued over his detention there, immigration officials had moved him to New Jersey, leading his case to be transferred to a judge there.
Khalil walked out of a Louisiana immigrant detention center in June, after U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release him from custody.
© 2026 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.