Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University, remains locked up in a Louisiana jail while a federal judge in New Jersey weighs whether the battle over his detention belongs there—or deep in the heart of the South.
Khalil, 30, was seized by immigration agents earlier this month after joining the wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests across the U.S. The government wants him deported. His legal team says that’s political retaliation—pure and simple.
The tug-of-war now centers on where the courtroom fight should happen. Federal prosecutors are pushing for the case to be transferred to Louisiana, where Khalil is currently held and where appeals would land before the country’s most conservative federal appeals court. His lawyers, however, are asking Judge Michael Farbiarz in Newark to keep it in New Jersey, calling his arrest unlawful and arguing that his political speech triggered government backlash.
Khalil’s supporters rallied outside the Newark courthouse Friday, chanting his name and holding signs demanding his release. Inside, his wife—U.S. citizen Noor Abdalla—sat silently in the gallery. She’s due to give birth to their first child in April.
“There is no legal basis to detain him,” Khalil’s attorneys insisted in court filings, noting he poses no flight risk and has no criminal charges. “This is about silencing dissent.”
After a brief stay in a New Jersey detention center, Khalil was transferred to Louisiana, where he’s being held while his immigration case unfolds separately. The government claims he misrepresented aspects of his past when applying for permanent residency, including what they describe as “continued employment” at the British embassy in Beirut and “membership” in the UN Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA.
But Khalil’s attorneys say the allegations are both flimsy and misleading. His unpaid internship at UNRWA was part of his Columbia degree program—and was listed on his paperwork. As for the embassy role, Britain’s own foreign office confirmed Khalil left the post over two years ago.
His defense argues this case isn’t about missed paperwork—it’s about political messaging. “They’re making an example of him,” said one advocate outside court. “He marched, he spoke, and now they want him gone.”
The judge did not offer a timeline for his ruling, but added, pointedly, that “judges are judges,” no matter the jurisdiction—a comment that some took as a subtle rebuke to the push for a courtroom venue shift.
Meanwhile, Khalil remains in limbo: a scholar behind bars, awaiting both a child and a decision that could shape the future of how America treats non-citizen dissent.
