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Khalil's Lawyers Appeal to Supreme Court to Halt Deportation

Updated 7:07 PM ET · 6:27 PM ETConfirmed

Politics Desk

In Short: Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil's lawyers are appealing to the Supreme Court to stop his deportation.

Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil's lawyers said Friday they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Trump administration from deporting him after a federal appeals court declined to rehear his case.

Khalil, 31, a green card holder, has been fighting his deportation since March 2025, spending the first 100 days in a detention facility after President Trump said he should be expelled from the country due to his political advocacy protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.

In a 6-5 decision, the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals denied Khalil’s request for the full court to review a three-judge panel’s prior ruling that dealt a blow to his efforts to remain in the country.

Khalil’s lawyers this week appealed the final determination in his immigration case to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees matters in Louisiana, where he was held in immigration detention.

Three of the dissenting justices said it would have profoundly harmful consequences not only on Khalil, but on all noncitizens asking the federal courts to intervene in immigration proceedings.

To avert the possibility of deportation, Khalil’s team said in a statement they had asked the 3rd Circuit for a stay preventing the Trump administration from detaining him while his lawyers petition the nation’s highest court to take up his case.

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a Trump administration policy denying bond hearings for immigrants as the government carries out a sweeping crackdown.

The case before the Supreme Court centers on Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a Brazilian citizen who entered the United States without inspection more than two decades ago and applied for asylum in 2016.

The high court said it will hear arguments on whether migrants must have a meaningful chance to object before being sent to countries where they have no ties.

The conservative-majority court has expanded gun rights in recent years, and four justices had signaled that it was only a matter of time before the court took up the issue.

The Supreme Court could hear arguments in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D. on either Nov. 30, Dec. 1, Dec. 2, Dec. 7, Dec. 8, or Dec. 9, with a ruling in the case expected by the end of June 2027.

If the high court takes up the case -- and says Khalil can access the procedure -- his case alleging targeted retaliation by the government over disfavored speech can go forward.

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• Lawyers for Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil said Friday they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Trump administration from deporting him after a federal appeals court declined to rehear his case.
• Khalil, 31, a green card holder, has been fighting his deportation since March 2025, spending the first 100 days in a detention facility after President Trump said he should be expelled from the country due to his political advocacy protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.
• The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a Trump administration policy denying bond hearings for immigrants as the government carries out a sweeping crackdown.
• The Supreme Court begins a new term Monday with significant cases on climate change, religious rights, and immigration.
• “Millions of noncitizens could be affected by the government’s new interpretation,” ACLU attorneys wrote.
• “The result is an unworkable patchwork of inconsistent immigration enforcement, where aliens present without admission are subject to mandatory detention in some circuits but are entitled to bond hearings and often released in others,” lawyers for the administration wrote.

What's still developing

• “Federal courts must have the power to step in when the government exploits our country’s immigration system to punish people for their constitutionally protected speech,” said Brett Kaufman, an attorney for Khalil from the American Civil Liberties Union.
• Related video above: DOJ files complaints against federal judges in Minnesota for their comments about immigration cases The justices will consider whether immigrants who have been living in the U.S. have a right to a hearing to determine if they should remain detained while challenging their possible deportation.
• The high court agreed to pause a February order from a federal district judge that said immigration authorities must give deportees more due process before removing them to so-called third countries.
• Federal attorneys said the lower-court decision forced the cancellation of a deportation flight carrying about 70 people bound for three countries.
• ACLU lawyers began hearing reports that deportation flights for the AEA detainees were or would soon be underway.
• Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on whether the Trump administration will be subject to a contempt of court inquiry for not stopping and turning around the deportation flights in the original Alien Enemies Act case, which began way back in March 2025, when the Trump administration sent more than 200 Venezuelan men to El Salvador’s CECOT prison.
• Immigrants have filed more than 73,000 such cases in ​federal court so far this year, about a quarter of all civil lawsuits brought in federal court.
• The administration said Thursday that the appeals court ruling came Wednesday just minutes before midnight, forcing the cancellation of a flight with 70 people that was headed to three countries.
• Former Columbia grad student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, whom the Trump administration detained and sought to deport from the U.S. on foreign policy grounds last year, has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to sue the government for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights.
• He was arrested by federal agents in New York City in March 2025 and held more than 100 days in ICE custody ahead of deportation after Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed an unusual determination that Khalil's pro-Palestinian activities "compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest."
• "I can afford to lose … unlike the thousands of immigrants in this country who really cannot lose this fight. Whatever I’m going through is a drop in the sea of what other families are experiencing."
• "It’s about whether anyone in this country can speak out for Palestinians without being punished for it." Asked for comment on Khalil's appeal, a White House spokeswoman said the executive branch has the authority to take actions that protect the country and the immigration system.

Sources

• ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videoslink
• Wmtwlink
• Gulfcoastnewsnowlink
• Fox Newslink
• CBS Newslink
• PBSlink
• Talkingpointsmemolink
• Bozemandailychroniclelink
• Washingtonexaminerlink
• Nydailynewslink
• Wkzolink
• Newsweeklink
• Springfieldnewssunlink
• WarpBeat — background on Khalil's Lawyers Appeal to Supreme Court to Halt Deportation link
• Center for Constitutional Rights — video link