The federal judge presiding over Mahmoud Khalil’s case ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration, for now, cannot deport or detain the Columbia University activist based on a determination by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The judge’s preliminary injunction will not take effect until Friday, giving the government time to appeal. He stayed the preliminary injunction until 9:30 a.m. Friday.
“This is the news we’ve been waiting over three months for,” Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the legal teams involved in the case.
Rubio has cited an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil’s removal from the United States, saying he poses a national security risk. He had argued that the provision allows the secretary of state to “personally determine” whether Khalil should remain in the country.
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz determined that Khalil could not be removed or detained based on Rubio’s determination.
Khalil was a Columbia University student who played an active role in protests over the war in Gaza on the Manhattan campus last year.
He was arrested by federal agents in March and has been held since then as he and his lawyers have challenged efforts to deport him. The Trump administration has accused him of leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security has alleged that Khalil has acted to “glorify and support terrorists.”
Khalil, who has not been charged with any crime, last week called the claims “grotesque and false.”
In his decision Wednesday, the judge said Khalil’s “career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled — and this adds up to irreparable harm.”
The Department of Homeland Security has also argued that it could detain Khalil because he inaccurately completed his lawful-permanent-resident application.
But that would not work as an argument to keep him detained, Farbiarz wrote.
“The evidence is that lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained pending removal” for those types of omissions, he wrote.
“And that strongly suggests that it is the Secretary of State’s determination that drives the Petitioner’s ongoing detention — not the other charge against him,” Farbiarz wrote.
The ACLU called the preliminary injunction “a huge win.”
Khalil’s lawyers called for his immediate release and said they would not stop fighting until he is home with his wife and child in the United States.
“This vindicates what Mahmoud has maintained since day one — that the government cannot detain or deport him based on Rubio’s say-so,” said Ramzi Kassem, a co-founder for the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The Homeland Security and State departments did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment.
Khalil was one of the first campus protesters targeted by the Trump administration, which has vowed to strike back over protests over the war in Gaza, which Israel launched after Hamas attacked it on Oct. 7, 2023.
Trump has targeted Columbia and Harvard, citing a fight to combat antisemitism at universities.
The Trump administration last week claimed Columbia violated Jewish students’ rights and threatened its accreditation.
