A judge has stepped in to temporarily block the deportation of a pro-Palestine activist who led student protests at Columbia University.
President Donald Trump expressed satisfaction with the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, signaling to supporters that this was just the beginning of a series of similar actions under his deportation policy.
Khalil was detained by ICE officers on Saturday night – who said they’d been given an order to revoke his green card – in front of his pregnant wife.
However, a federal judge in New York threw a wrench in Trump’s plans by issuing a ruling on Monday that prevented the administration from deporting Khalil until the next court hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
The court document, reviewed by DailyMail.com, explicitly stated that Khalil should not be removed from the United States unless the court issues a different directive, in order to maintain the court’s jurisdiction until a final decision is made.
Khalil, a Palestinian who was born and raised in Syria, helped to lead protests against Israel at Columbia University last year.
He also acted as a negotiator between students and university officials.
The protests were allowed to run rampant for two weeks. They were marked by violent assaults and instances of Jewish students being afraid to go to class.
Khalil (pictured) addresses the media on June 1, 2024, after a new encampment popped up on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus
Mahmoud Khalil, who was the lead student negotiator for the pro-Palestinian encampment, was arrested by Department of Homeland Security agents on Saturday night is currently being held
Khalil’s student visa and green card were reportedly subject to a revocation order by the State Department, according to his lawyer (Pictured: Students protest the war in Gaza on Columbia University on the anniversary of the October 7 attacks)
‘On March 9, 2025, in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student. Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,’ the Department of Homeland Security said on X Sunday night.
Trump said the ICE agents who arrested Khalil did so with pride, describing him as ‘a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University.
‘We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.
‘Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again.
‘If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here.’
In a direct warning to universities and colleges across the nation, Trump said they are expected to ‘comply’ with this decision.
Khalil, who graduated in December, is in custody at an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, according to federal records.
Activists who are lobbying for Khalil’s release say he was confronted at 8:30pm in his apartment building by two plain clothes DHS agents, both of whom refused to identify themselves at first.
Khalil’s arrest comes as Trump announced he would be cutting $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia for its failure to contain the pro-Palestinian protests
Khalil was detained by ICE officers on Saturday night – who said they’d been given an order to revoke his green card – in front of his pregnant wife
Protests have since resumed at Columbia with the start of the new semester in September, though not at the same scale as last year
His wife, who is eight months pregnant and a US citizen, was allegedly there as well. The activists said she was threatened with arrest if she ‘remained by his side.’
In the United States, immigration judges are the only people with the authority to revoke permanent residency.
Grounds for revocation include lying on your green card application or committing certain types of felonies.
According to a legal filing, ‘ICE began efforts to transfer Mr. Khalil out of [New York] and to a Louisiana detention facility a thousand miles away, without providing him any access to his counsel.’
‘This seemingly retaliatory action is particularly troubling,’ the filing states.
The judge presiding over the case is Obama appointed New York district judge Jesse Furman, a Jewish man married to a former Columbia Law School professor who now leads the Abraham Joshua Heschel School.
Khalil’s arrest comes as Trump announced he would be cutting $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia for its failure to contain the pro-Palestinian protests.
