Protesters rallied outside the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian Columbia University graduate and U.S. permanent resident, who was unlawfully detained amid the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him over his involvement in pro-Palestine protests.
The rally took place as a federal judge heard arguments regarding Khalil's arrest and detention.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman blocked the deportation of Khalil from the U.S. on Monday.
"To preserve the Court's jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise," he said in his ruling.
Khalil, a green card holder and a recent Columbia University graduate who helped lead a pro-Palestinian encampment last April, was arrested at his university-owned residence in New York and transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana.
Khalil's attorneys planned to file a petition Wednesday for his release from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the state of Louisiana.
According to Khalil's lawyer, Amy Greer, Khalil was "wrongfully arrested" by ICE agents who claimed his student visa was revoked — even though he is a legal permanent resident and not in the U.S. on a student visa. He is married to a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant.
Fourteen members of Congress, including Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley have signed a letter Tuesday demanding Khalil's release, criticizing his detention as an "attempt to criminalize political protest" and a "direct assault on freedom of speech.
During Wednesday's hearing, attorney Brandon Waterman argued on behalf of the Justice Department that the venue for the deportation fight should be moved from New York City to Louisiana or New Jersey because those are the locations where Khalil has been held.
One of Khalil’s lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, told the judge that Khalil was "identified, targeted and detained” because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights and his protected speech. He said Khalil has no criminal convictions, but "for some reason, is being detained.”
Kassem also told Furman that Khalil's legal team hasn't been able to have a single attorney-client-protected phone call with him.
Furman ordered that the lawyers be allowed to speak with him by phone at least once on Wednesday and Thursday. Calling the legal issues "important and weighty,” the judge also directed the two sides to submit a joint letter on Friday describing when they propose to submit written arguments over the legal issues raised by Khalil’s detention.
Kassem said Khalil's lawyers would update their lawsuit on Thursday.
Khalil's arrest has sparked protests in New York and other U.S. cities. Actor Susan Sarandon emerged from the courthouse and told reporters that "no matter where you stand on genocide, freedom of speech... is a right that we all have.” She added: ”And this is a turning point in the history and the freedom of this country.”
Some of Khalil's supporters attended the hearing. Hundreds more demonstrated outside the courthouse, beating drums, waving Palestinian flags and chanting for Khalil’s release.
"As we tried to make clear in court today, what happened to Mahmoud Khalil is nothing short of extraordinary and shocking and outrageous,” Kassem told the crowd. "It should outrage anybody who believes that speech should be free in the United States of America.”
Kassem said the legal grounds cited by the government to detain Khalil were "vague” and "rarely used,” masking the true intent: "retaliation and punishment for the exercise of free speech.”
Columbia became the center of a U.S. pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across college campuses nationwide last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.
Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.
President Donald Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as the first "of many to come.”
During a stopover in Ireland, while headed from Saudi Arabia to a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Canada, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Khalil's case is "not about free speech.”
"This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card," Rubio said.
Khalil, who acted as a spokesperson for Columbia protesters, hasn't been charged with a crime. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the administration moved to deport him under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to deport a noncitizen on foreign policy grounds.
Civil rights groups and Khalil’s attorneys say the government is unconstitutionally using its immigration control powers to stop him from speaking out.
U.S. Jewish groups and leaders and organizations have been divided in their response to Khalili’s detention.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, decried Khalil's detention.
The Trump administration "is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy: from gutting education funding to deporting students to attacking diversity, equity, & inclusion,” she wrote on Bluesky. "As we’ve repeatedly said: this makes Jews - & so many others - less safe.”
