A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the re-detention of Mahmoud Khalil as his legal team prepares to petition his case with the US supreme court.
The decision on Tuesday from the third circuit court of appeals gives the 31-year-old activist and US green card holder a temporary reprieve as the broader legal fight over his detention and immigration status continues.
In a statement following the ruling, Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Center for Democracy, said: “We’re grateful that the court recognized the irreparable harm Mahmoud would face if he were re-detained before the supreme court has a chance to review his case.
“Detention would serve only to cruelly separate him from his family and further chill his speech. We look forward to asking the supreme court to make clear that the government cannot use the threat of detention and deportation to silence dissent,” Kaufman added.
The case of Khalil, a Palestine-born recent Columbia University graduate, has become a flashpoint across the US over free speech and the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism across US campuses.
Khalil is married to an American citizen and has an American child. He was detained last March and was held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Louisiana for 104 days, with the US government arguing that Khalil could be expelled because his views constituted a threat to US foreign policy.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, who said that Khalil’s activities were “otherwise lawful”, argued that letting him stay in the US would undermine “US policy to combat antisemitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States”.
His detention by immigration authorities has drawn widespread criticism from civil liberties groups.
An appeals court last Friday upheld an earlier panel ruling from January, which reversed a lower court’s order that had released Khalil on bail. The decision opened the door for the government to once again detain and ultimately deport him.
