Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, a foreign-born Columbia University graduate who led pro-Palestinian protests after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, said on May 22 that they will ask the Supreme Court to review his high-profile immigration case after a federal appeals court refused to reconsider his case.
In a split 6-5 decision, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on May 22 that it would leave in place a ruling that stated U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz lacked jurisdiction when he ordered that Khalil could be released from immigration detention last year.
Friday’s ruling by the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals takes effect on May 29, which leaves a pathway for President Donald Trump’s administration to re-arrest and deport Khalil, whose deportation was ordered by an immigration judge in 2025.
Khalil can’t legally be detained until the ruling takes effect in one week, but his legal team quickly requested on Friday that the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stay the mandate.
If the court grants the stay, it would temporarily prevent Khalil from being removed from the country until after the case is heard by the nation’s highest court—if the justices take it.
If the mandate is rejected, then on May 29, Khalil could be vulnerable to being detained and removed from the United States.
“In light of the seven-day timeline for issuance of the mandate, Mr. Khalil respectfully requests that the Court rule on his motion at the earliest possible date, but at the latest within four days—by Tuesday, May 26—so that he can seek emergency relief in the Supreme Court, if necessary,” court documents filed by his lawyers stated.
If his removal eventually proceeds, Khalil, a Green Card holder, would be ordered to be sent either back to his home country of Algeria or Syria.
His lawyers argued that despite the setbacks, Khalil has a strong argument to stay in the United States.
“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,” senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement on Friday.
“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 separately filed an appeal with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, requesting it to reverse the Board of Immigration Appeals’ deportation order, and he is asking to stop all removal efforts, per the American Civil Liberties Union.