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Mr. Khalil, a Columbia graduate and legal permanent resident, has been held in Louisiana for over three months. The judge found reason to believe it was retaliation for his pro-Palestinian speech.
June 20, 2025Updated 2:12 p.m. ET
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to release Mahmoud Khalil on bail, a ruling that would end a three-month detention for Mr. Khalil, the only high-profile pro-Palestinian demonstrator in the United States who remains in confinement.
The ruling is a major victory and relief for Mr. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and legal permanent U.S. resident who played a leading role in demonstrations at the school’s campus last year.
The judge, Michael E. Farbiarz of Federal District Court in Newark, said during a two-hour hearing that he had been persuaded by Mr. Khalil’s arguments that his detention was an unlawful retaliation against his pro-Palestinian speech.
“There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish Mr. Khalil,” he said. “And of course that would be unconstitutional.”
The administration can continue in its efforts to deport Mr. Khalil, whose wife and infant son are U.S. citizens. But, if the government heeds Judge Farbiarz’s order, it will do so with Mr. Khalil free from detention, and back in New York with his family.
Mr. Khalil has not been charged with a crime.Instead, the administration justified holding him by invoking a rarely cited law that allows for the deportation of people who oppose the nation’s foreign policy objectives. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, accused Mr. Khalil of spreading antisemitism.
Mr. Khalil’s lawyers have disputed that, citing his past comments, including a statement he made on CNN that “the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand by hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other.”
A week after Mr. Khalil was arrested, the Trump administration added allegations against him that went beyond the foreign policy issue, saying he had made paperwork errors when he applied for citizenship last year.
Judge Farbiarz had already ruled that Mr. Khalil’s detention could not be justified by the foreign policy law. On Friday, the judge found that the remaining allegations against Mr. Khalil did not require that he be detained.
Mr. Khalil was the first of many students, including other legal permanent U.S. residents, to be targeted by the administration. His lawyers have argued that he was arrested because of his pro-Palestinian speech. Mr. Khalil had remained in detention even as several students in similar straits were released.
The administration has accused Mr. Khalil of siding with the terrorist group Hamas without providing substantive evidence that he has expressed support for the group. Mr. Khalil’s lawyers have cited his comments that antisemitism has no place in the protest movement he has helped to lead.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in the New York region for The Times. He is focused on political influence and its effect on the rule of law in the area's federal and state courts.
