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Detention of Mahmoud Khalil
The detention of Mahmoud Khalil (March 8–June 20, 2025; 104 days) was the US federal government's incarceration and attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a student at Columbia University and a lead negotiator of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment during the Gaza war and genocide. On March 8, 2025, plainclothes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took Khalil—who had not been accused of, charged with, or convicted of any crime—from his Columbia residential apartment building in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City. The agents did not have a warrant and were acting on orders from the State Department to revoke Khalil's student visa. When the agents were informed that Khalil is a lawful permanent resident, they said that status would be revoked instead. By March 10, ICE had transported Khalil to its LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana, where he was held until being released on bail on June 20.
The detention became the first publicly known deportation effort related to pro-Palestine activism during the presidency of Donald Trump, who threatened to punish students and others for allegedly engaging in activities aligned to Hamas. Khalil's detention received widespread backlash from civil rights organizations, members of the Democratic Party, and lawyers, who argue that it was an attack on freedom of speech and the First Amendment.
There was no criminal charge against Khalil; instead, the government's argument depends on a section of the Cold War–era Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA), which provides that aliens in the U.S. may be deported if the secretary of state believes their presence will have serious negative consequences for U.S. foreign policy. Several journalists and human rights organizations have noted this law's connection to McCarthyism.
On April 1, 2025, New Jersey federal district judge Michael E. Farbiarz issued a stay on Khalil's deportation while the court considered the constitutionality of his arrest and detention. Farbiarz later ruled that the relevant section of the INA was likely unconstitutional and ordered that Khalil be released on bail. After the government appealed, the Third Circuit ruled on January 15, 2026, that Khalil must exhaust the immigration court system before resuming his case in the federal court system. On April 11, 2025, Louisiana immigration judge Jamee E. Comans ruled that Khalil was deportable under Secretary of State Marco Rubio's assertion that Khalil's continued presence posed "adverse foreign policy consequences". Comans said she had no authority to question that determination. She later ruled that Khalil was deportable to Syria or Algeria on the basis that he had omitted information about his organization memberships when he applied for his green card. Khalil is appealing to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
The targeting of Khalil has been described as an example of the Palestine exception.
Mahmoud Khalil was a graduate student at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at the time of the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupations. He is an Algerian citizen with a green card confirming his lawful permanent residency in the U.S.
Khalil's grandparents lived in Tiberias, Palestine (now Israel), before being forced to flee to Syria in the 1948 Nakba. Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee enclave in Damascus, Syria, in 1995, to Palestinian parents. He and his family fled to Lebanon in 2012 after the onset of the Syrian civil war. Khalil has Algerian citizenship through his mother's family, who were reportedly Algerian revolutionaries displaced to the Ottoman Empire.
Journalist Lauren Bohn, who met Khalil in Beirut while reporting on the Syrian refugee crisis, said Khalil "often referred to himself as a 'double refugee' as a Palestinian in Syria and a Syrian refugee in Lebanon". Bohn reported that Khalil taught himself English while working with Syrian refugees through the Syrian-American education nonprofit Junsoor. Simultaneously, he earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Khalil then spent years working for the British government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, managing the Chevening Scholarship from the British embassy in Beirut and supporting diplomats with his language skills and local knowledge.
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Detention of Mahmoud Khalil
The detention of Mahmoud Khalil (March 8–June 20, 2025; 104 days) was the US federal government's incarceration and attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a student at Columbia University and a lead negotiator of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment during the Gaza war and genocide. On March 8, 2025, plainclothes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took Khalil—who had not been accused of, charged with, or convicted of any crime—from his Columbia residential apartment building in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City. The agents did not have a warrant and were acting on orders from the State Department to revoke Khalil's student visa. When the agents were informed that Khalil is a lawful permanent resident, they said that status would be revoked instead. By March 10, ICE had transported Khalil to its LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana, where he was held until being released on bail on June 20.
The detention became the first publicly known deportation effort related to pro-Palestine activism during the presidency of Donald Trump, who threatened to punish students and others for allegedly engaging in activities aligned to Hamas. Khalil's detention received widespread backlash from civil rights organizations, members of the Democratic Party, and lawyers, who argue that it was an attack on freedom of speech and the First Amendment.
There was no criminal charge against Khalil; instead, the government's argument depends on a section of the Cold War–era Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA), which provides that aliens in the U.S. may be deported if the secretary of state believes their presence will have serious negative consequences for U.S. foreign policy. Several journalists and human rights organizations have noted this law's connection to McCarthyism.
On April 1, 2025, New Jersey federal district judge Michael E. Farbiarz issued a stay on Khalil's deportation while the court considered the constitutionality of his arrest and detention. Farbiarz later ruled that the relevant section of the INA was likely unconstitutional and ordered that Khalil be released on bail. After the government appealed, the Third Circuit ruled on January 15, 2026, that Khalil must exhaust the immigration court system before resuming his case in the federal court system. On April 11, 2025, Louisiana immigration judge Jamee E. Comans ruled that Khalil was deportable under Secretary of State Marco Rubio's assertion that Khalil's continued presence posed "adverse foreign policy consequences". Comans said she had no authority to question that determination. She later ruled that Khalil was deportable to Syria or Algeria on the basis that he had omitted information about his organization memberships when he applied for his green card. Khalil is appealing to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
The targeting of Khalil has been described as an example of the Palestine exception.
Mahmoud Khalil was a graduate student at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at the time of the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupations. He is an Algerian citizen with a green card confirming his lawful permanent residency in the U.S.
Khalil's grandparents lived in Tiberias, Palestine (now Israel), before being forced to flee to Syria in the 1948 Nakba. Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee enclave in Damascus, Syria, in 1995, to Palestinian parents. He and his family fled to Lebanon in 2012 after the onset of the Syrian civil war. Khalil has Algerian citizenship through his mother's family, who were reportedly Algerian revolutionaries displaced to the Ottoman Empire.
Journalist Lauren Bohn, who met Khalil in Beirut while reporting on the Syrian refugee crisis, said Khalil "often referred to himself as a 'double refugee' as a Palestinian in Syria and a Syrian refugee in Lebanon". Bohn reported that Khalil taught himself English while working with Syrian refugees through the Syrian-American education nonprofit Junsoor. Simultaneously, he earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Khalil then spent years working for the British government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, managing the Chevening Scholarship from the British embassy in Beirut and supporting diplomats with his language skills and local knowledge.