Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil released after months in detention

NBC News

4 hours ago

Pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil was released from detention Friday evening, ending more than three months of custody in a test of the executive branch's power to unilaterally act against legal U.S. residents.
Khalil, whose plight has been center stage in President Donald Trump's crackdown on vocal opponents of Israel's incursion into Gaza, had been in immigration agents' custody since March.
He was released from a detention center in Louisiana just after 6:30 p.m. Friday, hours after a federal judge ordered that he be freed.
"Although justice prevailed," he said upon his release, "it's long, very long overdue. And this shouldn't have taken three months."
He said he was traveling back to New York and couldn't wait to reunite with his wife and infant son, who was born while Khalil was in custody.
"Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this," said Khalil, who was a key figure in 2024 Columbia campus protests against the war in Gaza. "That doesn't mean that there is a right person for this. There's no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide, for protesting their University, Columbia University."
In an earlier statement, his wife, Noor Abdalla, said she 'can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father."
'We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians," she said in the statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin lashed out at "rogue" U.S. District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz, saying he had no authority to order Khalil's release.
"This is yet another example of how out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security," McLaughlin said. "Their conduct not only denies the result of the 2024 election, it also does great harm to our constitutional system by undermining public confidence in the courts."
Government attorney Dhruman Sampat had argued that Congress has given the executive branch sweeping powers to determine who could be removed from the county.
The courts should not have the authority to interfere, Sampat said.
'I don't think any of that is right,' Farbiarz said during the remote hearing.
He added that there's 'very strong and uncontested record' that Khalil is not a flight risk and that he poses no danger to the public.
'I'm going to exercise the discretion that I have to order the release of the petitioner in this case," said Farbiarz, who is based in New Jersey.
Farbiarz declined a government request to stay his order for seven days to give the government more time to fight it.
Magistrate Judge Michael Hammer said Khalil will have to "surrender his passport and any other travel documents" as a condition of his release.
Hammer also ordered Khalil to limit his travel to New York, where he lives; Michigan, where he has family; New Jersey, where Farbiarz is based; Louisiana, the location of his immigration case; and Washington, D.C., for congressional visits and lobbying efforts.
Khalil, who has a green card, is married to a U.S. citizen and has no criminal record. He has not been charged with any crime.
"No one should fear being jailed for speaking out in this country,' said Khalil's attorney Alina Das, a co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law. 'We are overjoyed that Mr. Khalil will finally be reunited with his family while we continue to fight his case in court.'
McLaughlin, the DHS representative, said the government will continue to litigate the matter.
'It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America," she said. "The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil's removal, arguing he poses a national security risk.
The Cold War-era statute gives the secretary of state authority to 'personally determine' whether Khalil should remain in the country, the administration has argued.
But Khalil's backers have insisted that the government's actions are meant to stifle free speech on college campuses and silence opponents of Israel's ongoing military action in Gaza.
Israeli forces rolled into Gaza shortly after Hamas invaded the country on Oct. 7, 2023, in a terrorist attack that killed about 1,200 people. It has been estimated that Hamas terrorists took 251 hostages.