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Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate, was targeted for deportation because the Trump administration said he impeded its foreign policy. He will still be held in Louisiana.
May 28, 2025, 7:01 p.m. ET
Two weeks after Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident and pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University, was detained and set for deportation, the government quietly added new allegations to its case.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had first invoked a rarely cited law, saying Mr. Khalil’s presence in the United States facilitated the spread of antisemitism.
The new allegations were more mundane: that Mr. Khalil had failed to disclose his membership in several organizations, including a United Nations agency that provides relief to Palestinian refugees, when he applied for permanent residency.
On Wednesday, the government’s strategy appeared to have worked. Judge Michael E. Farbiarz of Federal District Court in New Jersey declined to release Mr. Khalil from an immigration facility in Louisiana, even though he found that the use of the foreign policy law in Mr. Khalil’s detention was most likely unconstitutional.
Mr. Khalil’s case is playing out in two courts. Judge Farbiarz has the power to free him and to determine the broad constitutionality of the administration’s attempts to deport him. An immigration court judge in Louisiana is considering the more narrow question of whether the United States has satisfied the basic legal requirements for a deportation.
Mr. Khalil’s lawyers had sought a preliminary injunction that, in addition to ordering his release, would block the Trump administration from using the law to deport other noncitizens who had spoken out in support of Palestinians, or had been critical of Israel.
