After Trump threatens more arrests, US judge freezes deportation of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil

A federal judge in New York City ordered a halt to the deportation of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil on Monday, after lawyers for Khalil brought a legal challenge to the deportation order. 

Federal Judge Jesse Furman ordered a hearing on Khalil’s case to be held Wednesday morning in New York.

Khalil, a U.S. resident married to a U.S. citizen, was born in Syria to Palestinian parents. According to his LinkedIn profile, he earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Lebanon's American University before going to the United States. 

Khalil’s lawyers are expected to make a defense involving the claim that the deportation is a violation of the activist's First Amendment rights, and could challenge the legality of the executive order which led to Khalil’s arrest. 

Khalil was involved in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University in 2023 and 2024. He was detained on Saturday by federal immigration officers in New York before being flown to Louisiana, where he is now being held ahead of his expected deportation. 

The Department of Homeland Security posted a note to social media announcing the arrest. 

“On March 9, 2025, in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student. Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” the statement read.

“ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security.” 

Trump also announced the arrest on 𝕏 and his Truth social media platforms. 

Calling Khalil a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student,” Trump threatened, “This is the first arrest of many to come.” 

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate it,” Trump wrote.

On Monday, pro-Palestinian activists demonstrated outside an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New York City, calling for Khalil’s release. Many of the protesters held Palestinian flags and wore keffiyehs. 

The National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) issued a call for mass unrest on campuses across the U.S. to protest Khalil’s arrest. 

NSJP was a leading group in anti-Israel campus protests across the United States last year, many of which involved calls to harm Jewish students or to deny them entry to college campuses. 

Trump appointed a task force to combat antisemitism on college campuses in the U.S., specifically at universities like Columbia and Harvard. 

After taking office in January, Trump signed an executive order intended to “combat anti-Semitism,” while threatening to deport “pro-jihadist” resident aliens involved in campus unrest.