The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals opens the door to Khalil being rearrested after it ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit he filed challenging his initial detention.
The court said that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the district court that heard Khalil’s lawsuit was not the proper forum to address his claims, which should instead have been raised through an appeal of a removal order issued by an immigration judge.
Khalil was among the most prominent foreign students detained last year after engaging in pro-Palestinian activism on US college campuses. While the ruling is likely to be appealed, if it stands it could close off a legal avenue commonly used to challenge deportation orders.
Thursday’s ruling was issued by US Circuit Judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, both appointed by Republican presidents.
“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.
US Circuit Judge Arianna Freeman dissented, saying Congress did not intend to foreclose meaningful judicial review of Khalil’s claims that his detention and potential re-detention violate his free speech rights under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
“Khalil claims that the government violated his fundamental constitutional rights,” wrote Freeman, a Biden appointee. “He has also alleged, and proven, irreparable injuries during his detention.”
Khalil said in a statement the ruling was “deeply disappointing, but it does not break our resolve.” His lawyers said they would appeal. The ruling does not take immediate effect, preventing his re-detention for now.
“The door may have been opened for potential re-detention down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability,” Khalil said.
Pro-Palestinian campus activists targeted
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that Khalil should “self-deport now before he is arrested, deported, and never given a chance to return.”
“Today’s ruling from the 3rd Circuit is a vindication of the rule of law and the simple truth that DHS has argued from the beginning: an immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr. Khalil should have been released,” she said.
Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, was arrested on March 8 by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan. Trump has labeled the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who participated, making Khalil the first target of that policy.
Although Khalil was initially detained in New York, immigration officials transferred him to New Jersey before his lawyer filed suit, leading the case to be reassigned. He was released from a Louisiana detention center in June after US District Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered DHS to free him.
The Trump administration appealed that decision, calling it an “unprecedented” intrusion into its enforcement authority and accusing Khalil of involvement in “violent and antisemitic riots” at Columbia University in 2024.
In September, an immigration judge ordered Khalil deported to Algeria or Syria over alleged omissions in his green card application. His lawyers have said they will appeal that ruling.
Thursday’s decision came hours before a federal judge in Boston was set to consider whether to block the Trump administration from arresting, detaining and deporting foreign students and faculty involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy, after previously finding the policy unconstitutional.