Mahmoud Khalil asks US Supreme Court to block re-arrest and deportation

Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to overturn a ruling that opened the door for President Donald Trump’s administration to re-arrest and deport the Palestinian activist (Reuters, via SRN News and TRT World).

Khalil’s lawyers asked the justices to take up his case after the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal immigration law barred a lower-court judge from ordering his release from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Khalil was among the most prominent foreign students arrested last year as the Trump administration pursued a campaign to detain and deport noncitizens who engaged in pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses. His lawyers say the Supreme Court should make clear immigration law does not prevent noncitizens from pursuing cases arguing they were detained to punish speech protected by the First Amendment.

“If the Trump administration can punish someone for their pro-Palestine speech, this or any future administration can punish anyone for any speech,” Khalil told reporters on Monday.

If the 3rd Circuit’s decision stands, Khalil faces possible arrest and deportation after the Board of Immigration Appeals in April rejected his challenge to an immigration judge’s order that he be removed to Algeria or Syria. A lower-court order barring his re-detention remains in place for now until the Supreme Court rules; a separate appeal of the immigration judge’s order remains pending.