Mahmoud Khalil Takes Deportation Fight to US Supreme Court
Hoda Sherif, Al Jazeera English
Mahmoud Khalil has filed an emergency petition with the US Supreme Court asking it to stay a Third Circuit ruling that could allow his re-arrest and deportation. His lawyers want the justices to affirm that non-citizens can sue when immigration officials detain them in retaliation for protected speech. The case could set a major precedent on free speech and executive power over immigration.
Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil has filed a petition with the US Supreme Court seeking review of a court ruling that could clear the way for his re-arrest and deportation.
On Monday, Khalil's lawyers filed an emergency petition with the nation's highest court, asking it to immediately stay the decision of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
That court had previously ruled that federal law should have barred lower courts from ordering Khalil's release from immigration detention in June 2025. Instead, the appeals court held that Khalil's detention should have been reviewed first in immigration court — a system overseen by the executive branch of the US government — rather than in a district court, which belongs to the judicial branch.
In March 2025, Khalil became the first known student protester targeted over his pro-Palestine views under President Donald Trump's second administration. A longtime US permanent resident and former graduate student at Columbia University, Khalil was arrested in the student housing complex where he lived with his wife, a US citizen.
The effort to deport Khalil has become a focal point in the debate over free speech at US universities. His Supreme Court petition could lead to a major legal showdown, determining whether federal courts can intervene when non-citizens face detention in retaliation for speech protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Khalil's lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to rule that non-citizens do in fact have the right to sue if immigration officials detain them as retaliation for exercising their free speech rights.
"If the Trump administration can punish someone for their pro-Palestine speech, then this administration or any future administration can punish anyone for any speech," Khalil said at a press conference on Monday.
Trump campaigned for re-election in 2024 partly on a pledge to crack down on the pro-Palestine student protest movement that emerged in 2023. Columbia University in New York became a focal point of that activity. Khalil, born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, served as a spokesperson for the protest groups.
The Trump administration, however, describes pro-Palestine activity as a threat to US foreign policy interests and argues it has the legal authority to deport non-citizens who take part in such protests.
After his arrest, Khalil was quickly moved to immigration detention centers in New Jersey and then Louisiana, where he was held for more than three months. Khalil faces the prospect of deportation to Algeria or Syria if the Third Circuit ruling stands.
In May, the Third Circuit voted narrowly, 6-5, not to rehear his case, but that decision will not take effect until Khalil exhausts his appeal options. He has fought deportation both within the immigration court system and in federal district court, where he filed for review of the lawfulness of his detention. Both cases are ongoing.
In April, the Board of Immigration Appeals rejected his appeal within the immigration court system and issued a final order of removal in his case.
On the same Monday, Columbia University faculty and staff held a silent memorial outside a campus gate to protest what they called "students kidnapped" by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Signs bearing portraits of Khalil, fellow student protester Mohsen Mahdawi and others were held aloft. Protesters called for solidarity with students facing deportation and urged Columbia to reopen its gates to the public after they were closed during the protest movement.
