Judge unseals case of Columbia activist detained by ICE, as legal fight intensifies
Mahmoud Khalil’s attorneys pushed for his release, while Jewish groups are split on the issue
Protestors gathered in New York City to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil on March 10. Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
By Benyamin Cohen March 12, 2025
The attorneys for Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests who was arrested Saturday by immigration agents, are seeking to have him released “as expeditiously as possible,” but were not able to do so at a Wednesday conference inside a federal courtroom in New York City.
Judge Jesse Furman, who had temporarily blocked Khalil’s removal from the U.S. earlier in the week, ruled that the case should be unsealed — a rare move in immigration detention proceedings.
Khalil, 30, remains held in a Louisiana detention facility, where his lawyers say they have struggled to contact him. They secured court permission for two phone calls — one Wednesday and another Thursday — and plan to amend their petition in hopes of either winning his release or at least bringing him back to New York.
The government, however, is pushing back. “The Southern District of New York is not the proper forum for this,” argued Brandon Waterman, a government attorney, suggesting the case should be moved to either New Jersey or Louisiana.
Khalil’s arrest marks a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s response to campus antisemitism, a crackdown that has already put elite universities under the microscope. A Palestinian with a U.S. green card, Khalil received his master’s degree in December from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
He is married to a U.S. citizen, and his wife, eight months pregnant with their first child, denounced his arrest. “My husband was kidnapped from our home,” she said in a statement after Wednesday’s hearing. “It is shameful that the U.S. government continues to hold him because he sought rights for his people,” adding, “his disappearance has devastated our lives.”
“Every day that Mahmoud spends in detention in Louisiana is a day too long,” said attorney Ramzi Kassem, calling his client’s detention “unconstitutional” and “unlawful.” Baher Azmi, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and another member of Khalil’s legal team, compared the arrest to the Red Scare and McCarthyism.
The arrest has sparked protests. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse, waving Palestinian flags and calling for his release. Among them was actress Susan Sarandon, a longtime advocate for Palestinian causes. “No matter where you stand on genocide, freedom of speech is a right that we all have,” she told reporters. “This is a turning point in the history and the freedom of this country.”
Khalil’s immigration status will be decided through a separate process, overseen by an immigration judge who could rule on whether to revoke his green card.
The Jewish divide
The precise allegations against Khalil were initially unclear. On Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security said that he was arrested for leading activities “aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio later reposted the statement. Tom Homan, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called Khalil a “national security threat.”
At a White House briefing Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a blunt assessment. Khalil “was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges. And he took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege, by siding with terrorists.”
Pro-Israel groups targeted Khalil, which may have led to his arrest. But the case has divided Jewish groups. The American Jewish Committee said it was “appalled” by Khalil’s views, but did not praise his arrest. Both the Jewish Federations of North America and Hillel International have remained quiet on the issue.
Activists that have coalesced against the rise of campus antisemitism after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack are asking themselves if this is the fight they signed up for.
“Antisemitism is on the rise, and we should take that very seriously, but we are not going to be able to arrest and deport our way out of the serious problem of antisemitism,” Udi Ofer, the former deputy national political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an interview. “Attempting to deport green card holders for their student advocacy is the kind of action we normally associate with repressive regimes.”
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs, condemned Khalil’s detention. The Trump administration “is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy: from gutting education funding to deporting students to attacking diversity, equity, & inclusion,” she wrote on Bluesky. “As we’ve repeatedly said: this makes Jews — & so many others — less safe.”
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