Mahmoud Khalil will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his deportation case, after a lower court denied a request to re-hear it.
Lawyers for Khalil, a Palestinian activist and former Columbia University graduate student, said Friday they would seek Supreme Court review and ask the court to stay an earlier appeals court order that put Khalil at risk of detention or deportation.
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"We hope the Supreme Court will recognize how dangerous the Third Circuit’s decision was, not just for Mahmoud but for other non-citizens the administration has its vengeful sights upon," said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, in a statement released Friday. "That ruling greenlights holding someone in prolonged, brutal detention conditions without access to meaningful judicial review in order to punish them and deter others from dissenting from U.S. foreign policy."
Khalil is also appealing to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking a reversal of the Board of Immigration Appeal’s order to remove him. His attorneys allege the judge in that case failed to consider certain evidence and "improperly sustained false, after-the-fact charges that the Trump administration brought in retaliation for Mr. Khalil’s speech."
Khalil was released from ICE detention in Louisiana in June of 2025. He was arrested in March 8 of that year when the Trump administration cracked down on campus protests over the war in Gaza.
