Judge blocks anti-Israel Columbia agitator Mahmoud Khalil from deportation as politicians come to his defense

A federal judge in Manhattan ruled that anti-Israel agitator Mahmoud Khalil is not to be deported “unless and until the Court orders otherwise,” on Monday. 

Khalil, who led anti-Israel protests and encampments on Columbia University’s campus, was taken into custody on the Upper West Side in New York City on Saturday. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that he was a former Columbia graduate student who “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” 

The judge ordered a hearing for Wednesday. Khalil’s lawyer also filed a motion that he be returned to New York City while the case plays out. According to ICE, Khalil is currently being held at the Lasalle Detention facility in Louisiana. Khalil’s lawyer has insisted their client was detained illegally and should be released.

His attorney, Amy E. Greer, released a new statement Monday evening, saying he is “healthy and his spirits are undaunted by his predicament.”

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The statement continued: “The remarks by government officials, including the President, on social media only confirm the purpose – and illegality – of Mahmoud’s detention. He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment. While tomorrow or thereafter the government may cite the law or process, that toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so. The government’s objective is as transparent as it is unlawful, and our role as Mahmoud’s lawyers is to ensure it does not prevail.”

Khalil’s wife also spoke out in a statement, calling for her husband to be released.

“Mahmoud is my rock, he is my home, and he is my happy place…,” she wrote. “For everyone reading this, I urge you to see Mahmoud through my eyes as a loving husband and the future father to our baby. I need your help to bring Mahmoud home, so he is here beside me, holding my hand in the delivery room as we welcome our first child into this world. Please release Mahmoud Now.”

Politicians have also spoken out in defense of Khalil. “Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., criticized his arrest, calling the incident an “egregious violation of constitutional rights.”

In a post published to Instagram on Sunday, Tlaib wrote that it was “dangerous to allow our government to target people based on political speech,” and warned that “more targeting of students like this will happen.”

“Everyone should be concerned about this,” Tlaib said in the Instagram video.

The Michigan congresswoman also addressed the reports about Khalil having a student visa revoked after his lawyer said he was a legal permanent resident.

“They were revoking his student visa, well, guess what? He doesn’t have a student visa,” Tlaib claimed. “He’s a green card holder. Legal permanent resident.”

“Now, again, they proceed to engage the attorney… he or she asked for a warrant, they hung up on them,” she continued. “If you believe in constitutional rights, you understand that they’re targeting this person. And everyone knows he has been very vocal against the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza, and they’re targeting him and refusing him constitutional rights. Who’s next?”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., released a statement supporting Khalil. 

“Mahmoud Khalil is a legal permanent resident whose wife, an American citizen, is eight months pregnant,” Jefferies said. “To the extent his actions were inconsistent with Columbia University policy and created an unacceptable hostile academic environment for Jewish students and others, there is a serious university disciplinary process that can handle the matter.”

Jefferies went on to say “DHS must produce facts and evidence of criminal activity.” He said the actions of the Trump administration are “wildly inconsistent with the United States Constitution.”

In an X post on Monday, New York State Attorney General Letitia James expressed concern.

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“I am extremely concerned about the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, an advocate and legal permanent resident of Palestinian descent,” James’s post read. “My office is monitoring the situation, and we are in contact with his attorney.”

James’s comments came hours before hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York to express support for Khalil. Pictures show demonstrators waving Palestinian flags, carrying signs and wearing keffiyehs.

President Donald Trump said that Khalil’s apprehension was “the first arrest of many to come” in a recent social media post.

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. 

“Many are not students, they are paid agitators,” he added. “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Tlaib’s office for additional comment.

Fox News Digital’s Pilar Arias and the Associated Press contributed to this report.