Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, facing possible deportation after setback, turns to US Supreme Court

Molly Crane-Newman and Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on May 22, 2026

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NEW YORK — Lawyers for Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil said Friday they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Trump administration from deporting him after a federal appeals court declined to rehear his case.

In a 6-5 decision, the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals denied Khalil’s request for the full court to review a three-judge panel’s before ruling that dealt a blow to his efforts to remain in the country. That decision found a lower court judge who had sided with Khalil and freed him from a Louisiana lockup lacked the legal authority to weigh in on the lawfulness of the detention.

The decision paved the way for Khalil’s possible rearrest. To avert that possibility, Khalil’s team said in a statement they had asked the 3rd Circuit for a stay preventing the Trump administration from detaining him while his lawyers petition the nation’s highest court to take up his case.

“Federal courts must have the power to step in when the government exploits our country’s immigration system to punish people for their constitutionally protected speech,” said Brett Kaufman, an attorney for Khalil from the American Civil Liberties Union. “If the Trump administration can target, arrest, detain, and deport Mahmoud for his speech, they can do it to anyone expressing an opinion they disagree with.”

Khalil, 31, a green card holder, has been fighting his deportation since March 2025, spending the first 100 days in a detention facility after President Donald Trump said he should be expelled from the country because of his political advocacy protesting Israel’s war in Gaza. The Trump administration has accused him of supporting Hamas and harassing Jews, even though he has publicly condemned antisemitism.

On Friday afternoon, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security released separate statements celebrating the federal appeals court’s decision not to review the case.

“We will work to enforce Khalil’s lawful removal order,” read the DHS statement. “The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority with respect to Khalil.” Federal officials encouraged Khalil to leave the country now, “before he is arrested, deported, and never given a chance to return.”

A DOJ spokesperson added: “Should he choose to pursue it further, we will continue to defend against this baseless challenge, as well as other similarly baseless challenges nationwide.”

In declining to rehear Khalil’s case, the majority of the 3rd Circuit judges did not explain their decision. Three of the dissenting justices said it would have profoundly harmful consequences on not only Khalil, but on all noncitizens asking the federal courts to intervene in immigration proceedings.

“The Judiciary ‘serves as an inseparable element of the constitutional system of checks and balances,'” Judge Cheryl Ann Krause wrote in the dissent, joined by two other judges. “We cannot fulfill that role if we write ourselves out of relevance and leave the Executive Branch to check itself.”

Separate from Khalil’s federal case, which accuses the White House of violating his free speech rights, the Palestinian activist is also fighting deportation in his immigration case — a process that, until now, has been overseen by the Executive Branch.

Khalil’s lawyers this week appealed a the final determination in his immigration case to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees matters in Louisiana, where he was held in immigration detention. The appeals court is widely considered the most conservative in the country.

While in detention last year, Khalil, who is married to a U.S. citizen, missed the birth of his first child and his Columbia graduation. He’s continued to speak out against the Trump administration and to advocate for Palestinian rights.

He has also found a sympathetic ear in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has asked Trump to drop his case, as well as immigration enforcement actions against other Columbia students or protesters. The New York Daily News sought comment from Mamdani’s office about Friday’s developments.

The Trump administration did intervene in the case of a Columbia student not involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy, but so far has not let go of the others.

(Josephine Stratman contributed to this report.)

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