Federal Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention as ‘Unconstitutional’

This is the first judge to rule on the constitutionality of President Trump's pursuit of the deportation of any non-citizen deemed a peril to U.S. foreign policy.

By Audra Heinrichs | May 29, 2025 | 4:17pm

Immigration Politics

Federal Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention as ‘Unconstitutional’

This week, a judge ruled that the Trump Administration’s effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil—the Columbia University graduate who organized student encampments to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza—is unconstitutional.

On Wednesday, Judge Michael Farbiarz issued an order stating that the state’s grounds for Khalil’s arrest—that his anti-genocide stance is a potential threat to the nation’s foreign policy—could give way to carte blanche detentions and deportations. As the Guardian noted, Farbiarz’s ruling is the first one by a federal judge regarding the constitutionality of the president’s pursuit of deportation of any non-citizen deemed a peril to U.S. foreign policy. However, Farbiarz has yet to grant Khalil’s release as he claims his attorneys have yet to address another charge by the government: that Khalil didn’t include his personal affiliations to some organizations—namely, a United Nations agency that works with Palestinian refugees and a Columbia protest group. In a statement to the Guardian, Khalil’s attorneys said they would give Farbiarz the additional argument as quickly as possible. Until then, Khalil will remain in detention at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana.

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“Every day Mahmoud spends languishing in an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, is an affront to justice, and we won’t stop working until he is free,” the lawyers said.

It’s been nearly three months since Khalil—a green card holder—was arrested and detained by ICE agents without a warrant and in the presence of his then eight-month pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla. Over one month later, Abdalla gave birth to their son. In an op-ed for t he Guardian published earlier this month, Khalil wrote what he characterized as his “first words” to his son, and described how he was only able to support his wife during childbirth by speaking to her over a “crackling” phone. “During your first moments, I buried my face in my arms and kept my voice low so that the 70 other men sleeping in this concrete room would not see my cloudy eyes or hear my voice catch,” he wrote. “I feel suffocated by my rage and the cruelty of a system that deprived your mother and me of sharing this experience. Why do faceless politicians have the power to strip human beings of their divine moments?”

This week, Abdalla spoke publicly about navigating life after the birth of their first child as Khalil remains miles away.

“I walked into the house by myself with this beautiful baby, and I think it just kind of hit me,” Abdalla told The Cut. “I have to do this alone.”

“I rely on him a lot,” Abdalla added. “It was always a fear of mine that he was not going to come to the birth.” Still, she told the publication that she tried to maintain optimism that Khalil would be home before her water broke. When it did, her attorneys asked ICE to grant him a temporary release to be present for the birth. “I still had a feeling that, maybe, they’re going to feel that we are humans,” she said, before describing how she learned the request was cruelly denied as she was contracting in the hospital. “I was angry with everybody,” Abdalla added. “Giving birth is not easy.”

Frankly, hell is too kind of a place for everyone who’s had anything to do with Khalil’s detention.

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