Appeals court hears case on campus protest leader’s removal fight
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A Justice Department lawyer argued in the appeals court on Tuesday that the lower court’s decision to block the detention and deportation of activist Mahmoud Khalil was “fundamentally flawed” and should be reversed.
Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign’s arguments came as he faced pointed questions during a hearing in the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in a tumultuous months-long case focusing on the constitutional rights of noncitizens.
The lieutenant sided with Khalil, saying the New Jersey district court did not have proper jurisdiction over Khalil’s case and that Khalil’s habeas corpus petition was not the proper tool to challenge his detention and deportation. The lieutenant said immigration courts, under DOJ jurisdiction, are the right venue.
“Habeas is the path the petitioner chose, and the district court tolerated this unlawful detour by granting an indefensible injunction,” Ensign said. “This court must reverse.”
FEDERAL JUDGE JOINS ANTI-ISRAEL OFFICER MAHMUD KHALIL STOPS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S DEPORTATION BID
Mahmoud Khalil said on the New York Times podcast that he believes Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel was a “desperate” call for Gazans to be heard by the world. (Fox News Digital’s Rashid Umar Abbasi)
Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who became the ringleader of campus protests against the Israeli government, has been fighting to stay in the United States since March, when the Justice Department first accused him of violating immigration laws for his defense of Palestine and sympathy for Hamas terrorists.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident, was arrested at the time and ruled to be removed by an immigration judge after the Trump administration said he made speech that contradicted the U.S. national security stance.
In June, Judge Michael Farbiarz, whom Biden appointed in New Jersey, blocked the immigration judge’s decision, saying Khalil’s First Amendment rights were violated, and the judge ordered Khalil released on bail.
ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST MAHMOUD KHALIL CLAIMS OCTOBER 7 TERRORIST ATTACKS WERE A ‘DESPITE ATTEMPT’ TO BE HEARD IN GAZA
Pro-Palestinian activist and former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was released from federal immigration detention in Jena, La., on June 20, 2025. (Fox News Digital’s Kat Ramirez)
In a later ruling, Farbiarz also appealed an immigration judge’s new ruling that found Khalil was dismissed based on a more recent allegation that the Trump administration had fabricated information about Khalil’s green card application. Khalil’s lawyers are now separately challenging that claim.
Ensign, who has advocated for the Trump administration in several controversial immigration cases, accused Khalil’s lawyers of trying to bypass immigration laws that establish a process by which immigration courts can rule on deportation and defendants can appeal those decisions.
Ensign said Khalil’s lawyers “are attempting to circumvent the carefully designed and articulated plan that Congress created for judicial review.”
LOS ANGELES, CA – MAY 1: Protesters gather outside the pro-Palestinian camp on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)
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A judge on the three-judge panel hearing the case on Tuesday said Khalil’s lawyers should not be blamed for filing a habeas corpus petition in New Jersey in March because they did not know their client’s true whereabouts at the time. Khalil’s arrest and detention took place over a whirlwind few days; here he was detained in New York, moved to New Jersey, then moved to Louisiana.
“The lawyers didn’t know,” the judge said. “They had to prepare for the worst. Unless we create a jurisdictional black hole, what else can they do?”
The appeals court judges have not said when they will rule, but a decision could come at any time.
