NEW YORK — A federal appeals court on Thursday dealt a blow to Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil in his legal battle against the Trump administration, reversing a lower-court order keeping him out of immigration jail while he fights the government’s efforts to deport him.

The split two-to-one decision by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia vacated a ruling issued by New Jersey Federal Judge Michael Farbiarz in June that ordered Khalil released from ICE custody after he’d spent more than 100 days at a detention facility in Louisiana. Farbiarz found the Trump administration’s justification likely to be unconstitutional.

Directing Farbiarz to dismiss the underlying case, Republican-appointed Judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas took no position on the arguments that the government violated the former student activist’s First Amendment rights by imprisoning him over protected speech supportive of Palestinians.

Rather, the panel found that Fabriarz lacked jurisdiction and that immigration law provisions limited when and how Khalil could challenge the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s actions in federal court.

They said Khalil can raise it only once and that it must be heard by a federal appeals court after a final order of removal in his immigration case, which is playing out on a parallel track and is overseen by judges employed by the Trump Justice Department.

“That scheme ensures that petitioners get just one bite at the apple—not zero or two,” the majority opinion read. “But it also means that some petitioners, like Khalil, will have to wait to seek relief for allegedly unlawful government conduct.”

Khalil, who missed the birth of his first child and his graduation while detained last year, is not immediately at risk of rearrest, as the order won’t take formal effect until he has a chance to ask it be reviewed, his team said in a statement Thursday. His attorneys may ask all judges on the 3rd Circuit to weigh in.

In a statement, Khalil said the ruling was disappointing but would not break his resolve.

“The door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability,” he said.

“I will continue to fight, through every legal avenue and with every ounce of determination, until my rights, and the rights of others like me, are fully protected.”

Mayor Mamdani lamented the ruling in a post on X. Khalil attended the mayor’s inauguration earlier this month.

“Last year’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil was more than just a chilling act of political repression, it was an attack on all of our constitutional rights,” Mamdani said. “Now, as the crackdown on pro-Palestinian free speech continues, Mahmoud is being threatened with rearrest. Mahmoud is free — and must remain free.”

A legal permanent resident of Palestinian descent, Khalil rose to prominence in the movement against Israel’s war in Gaza during campus protests at Columbia University in the spring of 2024, serving as a spokesman and a negotiator between students and the administration.

On March 8, he was detained by agents for the Department of Homeland Security at his Columbia-owned apartment and, in less than 24 hours, transferred more than 1,000 miles away to a detention facility in Jena, La.

Khalil’s lawyers brought the federal court habeas petition — which is a legal action that challenges the lawfulness of the state’s reasons for jailing someone — that ended up before Farbiarz soon after Khalil was taken into custody.

In public comments, Trump and senior members of his administration have accused Khalil of antisemitism and sympathizing with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, holding him up last spring as the first target in a crackdown against pro-Palestinian protesters on American campuses. Khalil has repeatedly denied the characterizations of his criticism of Israel and pointed to his public condemnations long before his arrest of bigotry against Jews.

The government has not accused Khalil of committing any crimes. After he’d been arrested and taken to the South, Trump administration lawyers argued that his presence in the country ran afoul of U.S. foreign policy interests. That rationale could be used as grounds to deport him per an obscure provision in an old immigration law empowering Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make such a call.

When that didn’t stand up in court, the Trump administration lodged a second reason for seeking Khalil’s removal, accusing him of omitting information about his work history on his green card application, allegations his lawyers say are meritless. Khalil worked at the British embassy in Syria and interned for the United Nations before enrolling in a Master’s program at Columbia in 2022.

Months into Khalil’s detention, Farbiarz granted a request to release Khalil from immigration jail, finding he didn’t pose a danger to the community or a flight risk and that he would suffer irreparable harm were he not released. He was reunited with his newborn son and his wife, a U.S. citizen, and returned to the city. He is appealing a deportation order in his immigration case, separate from his petition before Farbiarz.

In her dissent Thursday, 3rd Circuit Judge Arianna Freeman, a Biden appointee, disagreed with her colleagues’ position that immigration law prevented Farbiarz from having jurisdiction. Hardiman is a Bush appointee and Trump appointed Bibas during his first term.

Freeman said Khalil shouldn’t be restricted from seeking relief from the federal courts for active harms to his First Amendment rights until after the fact.

At a hearing Thursday in Boston, Federal Judge William Young, who previously found the Trump administration was intentionally chilling the speech of pro-Palestinian student activists, said he would publish a ruling restricting the government from targeting academics pushing back against the government’s deportation campaign on college campuses, Reuters reported.

In scathing remarks, Young, a Reagan appointee, said Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had conspired to violate the First Amendment rights of student protesters out of loyalty to Trump.

_____

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.