Mahmoud Khalil asks US Supreme Court to review ruling in detention case
The Palestinian activist is challenging an appeals court ruling that blocked a federal judge from ordering his release from immigration custody.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate, asked the US Supreme Court on October 19 to review a federal appeals court ruling in his immigration detention case. The ruling opened a path for the Trump administration to detain him again while it pursues his deportation.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal immigration law barred a lower-court judge from ordering Khalil’s release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. His petition asks the justices to overturn that ruling. Asking for review does not mean the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.
Why Khalil’s lawyers are challenging the detention ruling
Khalil’s lawyers argue that noncitizens must be able to bring claims in federal court when they say immigration detention punishes speech protected by the First Amendment. They say the appeals court’s approach could deprive detainees of access to habeas corpus, the legal process for challenging the lawfulness of imprisonment.
Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s lawyers and legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told reporters that access to habeas corpus was essential to testing Khalil’s claim. Khalil has accused President Donald Trump’s administration of using detention to punish his pro-Palestinian activism.
A New Jersey federal judge ordered Khalil’s release in June 2025 after finding his detention was likely unconstitutional, the New York Daily News reported. Khalil had spent 104 days at a Louisiana detention center after ICE took him into custody that March. The Third Circuit later reversed the release ruling, holding that federal judges could not review the detention challenge at that stage of the immigration process.
The separate challenge to Khalil’s deportation
The Supreme Court petition concerns Khalil’s ability to challenge his detention in federal court. He is also challenging a deportation order through the immigration process, according to the New York Daily News. The petition does not itself decide whether he can be removed from the United States.
The administration initially alleged that Khalil posed a threat to US foreign policy interests and later alleged omissions in his green card application, the Daily News reported. Khalil is a lawful permanent resident, married to a US citizen, and they have a son. He missed the child’s birth while detained. The Justice Department did not immediately return the Daily News’s request for comment.
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Sources and context
- Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil asks US to review deportation caseReuters (published by South China Morning Post)
- Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil asks U.S. Supreme Court to hear his caseNew York Daily News
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.