Federal judges on Friday declined to review an appeal filed by Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia graduate who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last March at the start of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists. Khalil’s lawyers said they will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit declined to review a January decision by a lower court that opened the door to Khalil’s deportation. The decision did not pertain to the main issues in the case, but rather what the appropriate venue was for Khalil’s case.
Khalil’s attorneys had argued that the case challenging alleged constitutional violations should be heard in federal district court, whereas the U.S. attorneys with the Department of Justice said such issues were best suited to immigration court, whose judges are hired by the U.S. Attorney General.
The ruling split the Third Circuit, with five judges voting to approve Khalil’s request and six judges voting to deny it. The dissenting judges contended that the court’s decision could threaten the constitutional rights of Khalil and other noncitizens.
“The Judiciary ‘serves as an inseparable element of the constitutional system of checks and balances’ protecting civil liberties and checking legislative and executive discretion,” Judge Cheryl Ann Krause wrote in her dissenting opinion. “We cannot fulfill that role if we write ourselves out of relevance and leave the Executive Branch to check itself.”
Khalil, an Algerian citizen and lawful permanent resident of the United States, was arrested in March 2025 after Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed his presence would have "serious adverse foreign policy consequences" for the United States Khalil had been a vocal critic of Israel's military operations in Gaza, calling them "a genocide," and helped organize pro-Palestinian events as president of Columbia's Palestinian Student Society.
“We hope the Supreme Court will recognize how dangerous the Third Circuit’s decision was, not just for Mahmoud but for other non-citizens the administration has its vengeful sights upon,” Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s attorneys and legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement . “That ruling greenlights holding someone in prolonged, brutal detention conditions without access to meaningful judicial review in order to punish them and deter others from dissenting from U.S. foreign policy.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been a vocal supporter of Khalil, calling his arrest “a chilling act of political repression” and “an attack on all of our constitutional rights.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the ruling's vote tally.
