Mahmoud Khalil takes deportation fight to the US Supreme Court

Lawyers for the former student leader seek to overturn an appeals court decision that would allow for his removal. Save Share Pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil has petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review a court ruling that could pave the way for his re-arrest and deportation. On Monday, Khalil’s lawyers filed an emergency application to the high court, seeking an immediate stay of a decision from Philadelphia’s 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. That court had ruled that federal law should have prohibitedlower courtsfrom ordering Khalil’s release from immigration detention in June 2025. Instead, the appeals court said that Khalil’s detention should have been weighed first in an immigration court — a system overseen by the executive branch of the US government — and not in district court, which is part of the judicial branch. In March 2025, Khalil became the first student protester known to be targeted for his pro-Palestinian views under the second administration of President Donald Trump. A permanent US resident and former Columbia University graduate student, Khalil wasarrestedinside the student housing complex where he lived with his wife, a US citizen. The push to deport Khalil has become a flashpoint in the debate over free speech on US campuses. His petition to the Supreme Court could result in a major legal showdown that determines whether federal courts can intervene when noncitizens faceretaliatory detentionfor speech protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Khalil’s lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to rule that noncitizens do indeed have the right to sue if immigration officials detain them as a reprisal for exercising free speech. “If the Trump administration can punish someone for their pro-Palestine speech, this or any future administration can punish anyone for any speech,” Khalil said during a news conference on Monday. Trump campaigned for re-election in 2024 in part on a pledge to crack down on the pro-Palestinian student protest movement, which had erupted in 2023. Columbia University in New York became an epicentre for such activism. Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, had served as a spokesperson for the protest groups. The Trump administration, however, has characterised pro-Palestinian activism as a threat to US foreign policy interests. It has argued it has the legal right to deport noncitizens who engage in such protests as a result....