Mahmoud Khalil asks Supreme Court to hear deportation case

Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University demonstrator whose case became a flash point in the Trump administration’s crackdown on anti-Israel foreign students, has asked the Supreme Court to take up his case, his lawyers said Monday.Khalil, a green card holder, was arrested by immigration authorities in March 2025. A federal judge later ordered his release, and since then he has gone on media tours in protest against the administration’s actions in his case. Khalil has claimed his detention was retaliation for his protected speech, a claim that is often muddled or leaves out important details from the government’s case against him. Despite an initial district court judge finding his order for deportation likely unconstitutional, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him, agreeing with the Trump administration that federal law bars judges from considering his arguments until he has exhausted his options and appeals in the immigration system, which is handled under the Department of Justice.Khalil’s lawyers argue that requiring him to wait allows the administration to prolong proceedings and punish him in the meantime, and that the government has an obligation to provide habeas corpus protections — calling it an “essential check on the kind of arbitrary detention here,” one of his attorneys, Baher Azmy, said.His counsel argues he should be able to raise his First Amendment claims immediately through a habeas petition, a legal challenge to the lawfulness of his detention. In their petition to the Supreme Court, they warned that allowing the appeals court’s decision to stand would give the government “a powerful and unprecedented weapon to silence its critics” and chill the speech of others, including U.S. citizens.However, the DOJ argues Khalil made multiple failures upon his 2022 entry to the United States, including his failure to disclose prior associations when applying for his visa and green card, and work for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.UNRWA is the agency that came under scrutiny after Israel provided information alleging that some of its employees had ties to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack. The Biden administration cut ties with the agency in 2024, and the Trump administration has continued that same position.“Regardless of his allegations concerning political speech, Khalil withheld membership in certain organizations,” the government wrote in a March filing last year, arguing that misrepresentations in immigration applications are not protected speech.The Supreme Court rejects most petitions seeking review. The justices are expected to consider Khalil’s request at a private conference in the coming months. His lawyers said they hope the case can be heard during the court’s current term. Khalil has remained free since a federal judge ordered his release on June 20, 2025.FEDERAL VOTER FRAUD ARRESTS INTENSIFY IN CALIFORNIA DAYS AFTER DOJ WARNINGThe dispute over when federal courts can review immigration-related claims is already before the justices, meaning it is likely the issue could get before them in either this case or another.The Trump administration previously asked the court to review a separate case involving Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and Georgetown University postdoctoral scholar it has sought to deport, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled federal courts could hear his challenge.