Judge Rules Government Can’t Detain Mahmoud Khalil Under Rubio’s Reasoning

A federal judge has ruled that the government can no longer hold pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil under Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claims that he poses a threat to national security.

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz blocked the government from deporting Khalil and ordered him to be released on Friday, but gave the government time to appeal his release.

In his decision, Farbiarz wrote that Khalil will continue to suffer irreparable harm if he continues to be detained, having already lost a job offer from Oxfam International and been blocked from witnessing the birth of his firstborn child.

The judge found no basis for continuing to hold Khalil based on Rubio’s determination that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. compromises foreign policy interests, which Farbiarz said was the government’s main argument for seeking to detain and deport Khalil.

Khalil’s legal team celebrated the decision as a major win, demanding that Khalil now be released. This is the first time a federal court has ruled that Khalil and others hit with similar charges cannot be deported on the foreign policy argument under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, which are representing Khalil, said in a press release.

“This vindicates what Mahmoud has maintained since day one — that the government cannot detain or deport him based on Rubio’s say-so,” said Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer for Khalil, in a statement. “ICE should now do the right thing and release Mahmoud immediately so he can return to his wife, Noor, and their newborn baby boy, Deen.”

Kassem has warned, however, that they “aren’t out of the woods” until Khalil is out of immigration detention.

Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife, expressed hope that Khalil could be released in time for Father’s Day on Sunday.

“This is the news we’ve been waiting over three months for,” said Abdalla. “True justice would mean Mahmoud was never taken away from us in the first place, that no Palestinian father, from New York to Gaza, would have to endure the painful separation of prison walls like Mahmoud has. I will not rest until Mahmoud is free, and hope that he can be with us to experience his first Father’s Day at home in New York with Deen in his arms.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said that it intends to appeal the ruling.

“Today’s ruling delays justice and seeks to undermine the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II,” said DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a statement.

Farbiarz wrote that the government could still make an argument that Khalil failed to fill out his green card application correctly — even though the government itself seems to have overstepped numerous statutory authorities in order to arrest and detain Khalil. Farbiarz further noted that the government does not seem to be detaining him for reasons related to his application, and that that is an extremely rare reason for someone to be detained.