Mahmoud Khalil Returns to NYC After 104 Days in ICE Detention

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The Columbia graduate and activist was greeted by supporters at Newark Airport and accompanied by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as he denounced the Trump administration’s efforts to ‘dehumanize’ immigrants.

Jun 21 2:47pm EDT

Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia graduate and student activist targeted by the Trump administration for his pro-Palestinian views, was released from ICE custody in Louisiana Friday evening and arrived in Newark Airport Saturday afternoon to be greeted by a small crowd of cheering supporters.

“The fact that they put me in that place, that didn’t mean I was not free,” Khalil said while making brief remarks as he left the airport followed by a throng of news cameras. He was accompanied by members of his legal team and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens/The Bronx).

“I continued to advocate for Palestinians, for the immigrants who are left behind in that facility,” Khalil said, referring to the sprawling detention facility in Jena, Louisiana where he was held for more than three months, during which time he missed the birth of his first child.

“This is what the administration is trying to do, to dehumanize me, to dehumanize the immigrants, to dehumanize anyone who actually does not agree with the administration,” he added.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said she welcomed Khalil on behalf of New Yorkers.

Noting that Khalil was held in prison “for 104 days by the Trump administration with no grounds and for political reasons,” Ocasio-Cortez denounced his detention, saying “It is illegal. It is a violation of his first amendment rights. It is an affront to every American.”

Khalil’s remarks earlier at Newark airport. @thecity.nyc

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— Gwynne Hogan (@gwynnefitz.bsky.social) June 21, 2025 at 3:58 PM

Khalil raised his fist in the air, shouting “Free Palestine,” before leaving to rejoin his wife Noor and newborn baby Deen who met him at the airport. Noor gave birth alone during Khalil’s time in detention, and this was just the second time Khalil had seen his child in person.

The dramatic scene Saturday came a day after U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz ordered Khalil released on bail as he fights the government’s ongoing deportation case against him in immigration court in Louisiana. Khalil was required to surrender his passport and can only travel to New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Louisiana and D.C. for court hearings and legislative and lobbying purposes, according to the judge’s order.

In a statement posted to X Friday, the Department of Homeland Security slammed Farbiarz’s decision, calling him a “rogue district judge” and claiming that only an “immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr. Khalil should be released or detained.” The administration promptly appealed Judge Farbiarz’s order to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. The Trump administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews and damages property,” the statement from DHS read. “An immigration judge has already vindicated this position. We expect a higher court to do the same.”

Baher Azmy, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a member of Khalil’s legal team, rejected that view, saying it reflected the government’s “general ignorance about how a constitutional system works, how a democracy works.”

“A federal judge reviewed the constitutional arguments presented and did what a federal judge is supposed to do,” he said at Saturday’s brief press conference.

Khalil was expected to rejoin supporters in a rally near Columbia University Sunday afternoon.

Khalil, who was never charged with any crime, is married to a U.S. citizen and held a valid green card at the time of his arrest. Trump administration attorneys have argued that his beliefs alone are a threat to national security interests.

Judge Farbiarz had earlier ordered Khalil’s release on June 11, but gave the government a week to appeal the decision. Government attorneys then reasserted an alternate reason to keep Khalil jailed: that he had allegedly lied on his green card application. The judge ruled on Friday that that allegation did not require Khalil’s continued detention.

Khalil became a vocal figure during the pro-Palestinian encampments at Columbia University in 2024, serving as a key spokesperson and negotiator for student demonstrators. In the first weeks of the Trump administration, he found himself the target of an intense doxxing campaign by pro-Israeli activists who had the ear of the White House.

Khalil was the first pro-Palestinan student activist targeted by the administration back in mid-March, when federal agents staked out his campus housing and arrested him inside without a warrant on March 8.  

During his weeks in detention, the Trump administration arrested and detained several other students and professors including Mohsen Mahdawi, another Columbia student activist, Rümeysa Öztürk, a Ph.D. student at Tufts University, who co-authored an op ed about war in Gaza, and post-doctoral fellow at Georgetown Badar Khan Suri. All three of them have since been ordered released by federal judges. Several others were forced into hiding or fled the country.

Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman living in New Jersey who lost dozens of family members in Israel’s war in Gaza and who was arrested outside Columbia University campus during the protests of 2024, was still in detention as of Friday, her attorneys confirmed.