Mahmoud Khalil takes deportation fight to the US Supreme Court

Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has asked the US Supreme Court to review a ruling by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals that could pave the way for his re-arrest and deportation. His lawyers filed an emergency application seeking an immediate pause of the ruling, which said his detention should have been considered first by an immigration court rather than a federal district court. Khalil, a permanent US resident and former Columbia University graduate student, was arrested at his student housing in March 2025. His case has become a flashpoint in debates over campus free speech and federal courts’ authority in cases involving noncitizens detained over their speech.