A federal judge in New York City has intervened to block the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful U.S. permanent resident and former Columbia University graduate student, as the Trump administration ramps up its campaign against campus protests critical of Israel and the war in Gaza.
Khalil, detained Saturday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and transferred to an immigration jail in Louisiana, will remain in the U.S. pending a court hearing scheduled for Wednesday, following a lawsuit filed by his legal team challenging his arrest.
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The ruling comes as President Donald J. Trump doubled down on his pledge to target student activists, warning in a Monday social media post that Khalil’s detention is “the first of many to come.”
Trump accused Khalil and others of engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” vowing to “find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country—never to return again.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) justified the arrest as aligning with Trump’s executive orders aimed at curbing antisemitism, claiming Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas,” a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian who graduated from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in December, emerged as a prominent figure in last year’s pro-Palestinian protests at the university. As a negotiator for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest group, he mediated between demonstrators and administrators during a wave of encampments and rallies calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
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While he and fellow activists frame their movement as anti-war, the administration and pro-Israel advocates have pointed to instances where the coalition expressed support for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, fueling allegations of antisemitism.
As Wednesday’s hearing looms, Khalil’s case has become a flashpoint in the debate over free speech, immigration enforcement, and U.S. policy toward Israel.
For now, the federal judge’s ruling offers a temporary reprieve, but the outcome could shape the fate of other activists in Trump’s crosshairs.
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