The Trump Administration scored a legal victory when a federal appeals court rejected the lawsuit of anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil against his detention and deportation, overturning a lower court ruling ordering his release, Reuters reported.
The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 today (Thursday) that judges do not have jurisdiction over Khalil's deportation.
Khalil, a former Columbia University student who organized anti-Israel protests on campus, made national headlines last year when he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March for allegedly posing a threat to national security. He was released in late June after a judge ruled that his detention was unconstitutional.
Despite this setback, the Trump administration continued its efforts to deport Khalil, adding a new rationale to the case: that he failed to disclose his full employment history and membership in certain organizations when he applied for his green card.
The controversial activist faced widespread condemnation for his defense of the October 7, 2023 massacre that ignited the Israel-Hamas War. In an interview with the New York Times on August 6, he bizarrely attempted to justify the massacre as a “desperate attempt" by Hamas to “just break the cycle" of Palestinian Arab suffering. He also refused to describe the attack as a “mistake," while acknowledging that “targeting civilians is wrong."
On September 12, an immigration judge in Louisiana ordered the deportation of Khalil to either Syria or Algeria.