Mahmoud Khalil renews plea for release from Louisiana detention centre, asks to be closer to family

Middle East Eye

8 hours ago

Lawyers for Palestinian Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil wrote to the US district court on Monday asking for him to be immediately released on bail or for him to be transferred to New Jersey.
The request came after Khalil, who helped lead pro-Palestinian campus protests at Columbia University last year, was close to being released from detention in Jena, Louisiana, where he has been held since March on allegations that he poses a threat to US foreign policy.
Monday's filing notes that Khalil is neither a flight risk nor a danger to anyone and says that his detention - more than 1,300 miles from his family, friends, and legal team in New York - violates an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy that says that detained parents should be held 'as close as practicable' to their families.
The filing says that the court previously recognised that continued detention, based solely on the sorts of misrepresentations alleged by the government, is exceedingly rare and in retaliation for his advocacy on Palestine.
US district court judge Michael Farbiarz, who is overseeing his case, last week ruled it was unconstitutional to detain and deport Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, for supporting Palestinian human rights, and that he should be released from detention. The court gave the government until Friday morning to appeal.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
The government then told the court on Friday that it would continue to detain Khalil in Louisiana, saying that Khalil had omitted information on his green card application.
While judge Farbiarz acknowledged that the government virtually never detains anyone on such 'misrepresentation' charges, he said he would uphold their appeal, and did not grant Khalil's release.
Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union's Center for Democracy, expressed concern about the government's pretext for detaining Khalil, saying, 'Like it has for the past three months, the government is using all of the tools available to it to hinder justice for Mahmoud.
US government cited inaccurate tabloid accounts in its case against Mahmoud Khalil, documents show Read More »
'The government practically never holds people in detention on a charge like this, and it's clear that the government is doing anything they can to punish Mahmoud for his speech about Palestine,' he added.
Lawyer Marc Van Der Hout said it was 'another cruel attempt by the government to punish Mahmoud for his protected speech'.
'Detaining someone on a charge like this is highly unusual and, frankly, outrageous.'
'The district court soundly and clearly rejected the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) attempt to deport Mahmoud for speaking out about the genocide in Gaza, and there continues to be no constitutional basis for his detention,' he added.
Who is Mahmoud Khalil?
Khalil graduated with a master's degree from Columbia's school of international and public affairs in December.
He was one of the main negotiators for students during the pro-Palestine campus encampment in the spring of 2024.
On 8 March, the Trump administration and DHS arrested and detained Khalil for his advocacy for Palestinian rights at Columbia University.
The father-of-one has not been charged with any crime. The government argues that Khalil should be deported on foreign policy grounds.
After his arrest, the government added allegations that Khalil lied on his green card application. These claims have been strongly contested by Khalil and his lawyers.
Court documents show the US government used inaccurate information published in tabloid newspapers in its case against Khalil to argue that he should be deported.
Among the claims cited in the Trump administration's case against Khalil is that he was a "member of Unrwa", the United Nations Palestinian refugee aid agency for which the US suspended all funding for the past year.
Khalil filed his green card application in March 2024. His work history shows he was a programme manager in the Syria office of the British embassy in Beirut from June 2018 to December 2022.
The US government has insisted that he failed to list his work for the embassy "beyond 2022" and submitted a copy of an online profile of Khalil from the Society for International Development's conference scheduled for June 2025, which identifies him as an embassy employee.
Britain's Commonwealth and Development Office told NBC News that Khalil had not worked for the UK government in more than two years, and his employment ended just before Christmas in 2022.