US District Judge Michael Fabiarz on Friday extended the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian student protest leader, despite an earlier order requiring his release. Khalil, a legal permanent resident, was initially expected to be freed following the judge’s Wednesday directive that barred the government from detaining or deporting him based on claims by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Khalil posed a national security threat.
However, the judge noted that by Friday afternoon, the Trump administration had introduced a second charge to justify keeping Khalil in custody. According to court documents, the Department of Homeland Security cited various American tabloid reports alleging that Khalil, who is married to a US citizen, failed to disclose certain details about his involvement in a campaign to boycott Israel when applying for his permanent residency.
Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer, condemned the administration’s actions as “cruel, transparent delay tactics” aimed at separating Khalil from his wife and newborn son ahead of their first Father’s Day together. She described the detention as unjust and a punishment for Khalil’s pro-Palestinian activism.
Since his arrest by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on March 8, Khalil has become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian student activism during the relentless Israeli assault on Gaza, under the stated aim of combating anti-Semitism. Khalil was a prominent leader of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s military actions while a graduate student at Columbia University in New York.
Following his arrest, Khalil—born in Syria to Palestinian parents—was transferred nearly 2,000 kilometers from his New York home to a detention centre in Louisiana, where he remains detained pending deportation. His wife, Noor Abdalla, a dentist from Michigan, gave birth to their son during his detention.
