On Thursday, January 15th, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey had no jurisdiction to order the Department of Homeland Security in June last year to release Mahmoud Khalil, an Algerian-Palestinian Columbia University graduate, from custody.
The appeal court’s decision in Khalil’s case is a clear victory for the Trump administration in its efforts to deport the antisemitic pro-Palestinian activist. Khalil was detained in March 2025 and held in a Louisiana immigrant detention centre awaiting deportation after he led illegal student protests at Columbia University in support of Hamas after the October 7 massacres. As we reported, less than a year after arriving at Columbia on a student visa, Khalil was involved in illegal occupations of buildings, served as the negotiator on behalf of the occupying students with the university, pressuring the administration to accommodate student demands based on their illegal activity, and helped organize an illegal encampment on the campus that denied access to “Zionist” students.
The Thursday ruling said under the Immigration and Nationality Act, Khalil’s claims needed to be heard through an appeal of a final order of removal from an immigration judge, and the judge who had halted his deportation last summer, had no jurisdiction in the matter.
