Pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil threatened with re-arrest after losing US court case

A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that a judge had no jurisdiction to order the release of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, delivering President Donald Trump's administration a victory in its efforts to deport the pro-Palestinian activist.

The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals opened the door to Khalil being re-arrested after it ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit he filed challenging his initial detention.

That holding came from US Circuit Judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, both of whom were appointed by Republican presidents, who said that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, his claims needed to be instead heard through an appeal of a final order of removal from an immigration judge.

"The scheme Congress enacted governing immigration proceedings provides Khalil a meaningful forum in which to raise his claims later on - in a petition for review of a final order of removal," they wrote in an unsigned opinion.

"Today’s ruling is deeply disappointing, but it does not break our resolve," Khalil said in a statement.

"The door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability. I will continue to fight, through every legal avenue and with every ounce of determination, until my rights, and the rights of others like me, are fully protected."

Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel's assault on Gaza, was arrested without charge on 8 March by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, had called the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part. Khalil became the first target of this policy.

Khalil's legal team say that the Trump administration violated his First Amendment rights by trying to deport him because of his speech.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio later justified the move on foreign policy grounds.

Thursday's decision did not address whether the government acted unconstitutionally.

"Today’s decision is deeply disappointing, and by not deciding or addressing the First Amendment violations at the core of this case, it undermines the role federal courts must play in preventing flagrant constitutional violations," said Bobby Hodgson, deputy legal director at the New York Civil Liberties Union. 

"The Trump administration violated the Constitution by targeting Mahmoud Khalil, detaining him thousands of miles from home, and retaliating against him for his speech. Dissent is not grounds for detention or deportation, and we will continue to pursue all legal options to ensure Mahmoud's rights are vindicated."

Though Khalil was initially detained in New York, by the time his lawyer sued over his detention there, immigration officials had moved him to New Jersey, leading his case to be transferred to a judge there.

He walked out of a Louisiana immigrant detention center in June, after US District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ordered the US Department of Homeland Security to release him from custody.

(Reuters and TNA staff)