Third Circuit clears path for Mahmoud Khalil rearrest and deportation in 2-1 ruling
A federal appeals court has stripped away the legal shield that kept Mahmoud Khalil,Court,Palestine,Immigration Act, the Columbia University graduate student who helped organize pro-Palestinian campus encampments, out of immigration detention.The Third Circuit's 2-1 decision reverses a lower court order that had freed Khalil, ruling that the district judge never had jurisdiction over his removal case in the first place.
The decision hands the Trump administration a clear win in its campaign to deport noncitizens tied to what federal officials describe as pro-Hamas activism on American college campuses. It also sets up a potential rearrest and puts Khalil closer to removal than he has been at any point since his case became a national flashpoint.
The core of the ruling is jurisdictional, not ideological, though the practical effect lands squarely on one side.
The Third Circuit held that the Immigration and Nationality Act strips federal district courts of subject-matter jurisdiction over removal proceedings like Khalil's. That means the New Jersey federal judge who intervened and ordered Khalil's release acted outside the bounds of judicial authority.
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