Mahmoud Khalil calls for an end to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip during a rally in New York in August 2025.
| Scott Heins / The New York Times
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Oct 20, 2026
Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that opened the door for President Donald Trump’s administration to rearrest and deport the Palestinian activist.
Khalil’s lawyers asked the justices to take up his case after the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal immigration law barred a lower-court judge from ordering his release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Khalil was among the most prominent foreign students to be arrested last year as the Trump administration pursued a campaign to detain and deport noncitizens who engaged in pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses.
