The Trump administration is refusing to release detained pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil – despite a court order blocking his detention.
Federal judge Michael E. Farbiarz had issued an order barring pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil’s detention, which was set to go into effect at 9:30 am, on June 13. The Trump administration ignored this deadline, with the field office director for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New Orleans telling the lawyers of detained pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil this morning that in spite of a judge’s order, ICE has no immediate plans to release him.
“I have no information that your client will be released or a time for that,” said the field office director for ICE New Orleans.
Now it appears that the administration has no plans to release the Columbia alumnus at all.
After Khalil was detained, Rubio issued a memo claiming that the continued presence in the United States of Khalil and fellow Columbia student Yunseo Chung “would compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest.” In Wednesday’s ruling, Farbiarz barred Khalil’s continued detention under this foreign policy law invoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Instead of releasing Khalil on Friday, the Trump administration shifted their rationale for his continued detention. Khalil’s detention is now based on “other grounds,” relating more specifically to Khalil’s immigration status. These allegations were added by the Trump administration more than a week after Khalil’s detention, and claim that the activist had willfully failed to disclose membership in organizations including Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which led campus protests for Palestine in the spring of 2023, and UNRWA, a UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
“The deadline has come and gone and Mahmoud Khalil must be released immediately,” said Khalil’s legal team. “Anything further is an attempt to prolong his unconstitutional, arbitrary, and cruel detention.”
