Columbia College pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was launched from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Jena, Louisiana, on Friday night after greater than three months in custody.
Khalil instructed reporters that the very first thing he’ll do when he arrives house is hug his spouse and his son, who was born whereas he was in custody.
“The tons of of males who’re left behind me should not be there within the first place,” Khalil instructed reporters, referring to others being detained. “The Trump administration are doing their greatest to dehumanize everybody right here — whether or not you’re a U.S. citizen, an immigrant or only a individual on this land, does not imply that you’re much less of a human.”
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, middle, speaks after his launch from federal immigration detention in Jena, La., Friday, June 20, 2025.
Matthew Hinton/AP
Khalil mentioned he would have extra to say at a press convention in New York on Saturday.
Earlier Friday, U.S. District Decide Michael Farbiarz had issued an order granting Khalil’s launch on bail, a choice that was sharply criticized by the Trump administration.
Khalil, a inexperienced card holder who’s married to an American citizen, has been held in a Louisiana detention facility since he was arrested by ICE brokers in New York Metropolis in March.
The ruling got here on the identical time an immigration decide in Jena, Louisiana, denied Khalil’s request for asylum and ordered him to stay detained — however Decide Farbiarz’s order supersedes that.
“An immigration decide, not a district decide, has the authority to determine if Mr. Khalil needs to be launched or detained,” the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned in an announcement posted on-line. “On the identical day an immigration decide denied Khalil bond and ordered him eliminated, one rogue district decide ordered him launched. That is yet one more instance of how uncontrolled members of the judicial department are undermining nationwide safety. Their conduct not solely denies the results of the 2024 election, it additionally does nice hurt to our constitutional system by undermining public confidence within the courts.”
Mahmoud Khalil, an Algerian citizen and U.S. everlasting resident, middle, speaks after his launch from an ICE processing middle in Jena, La., Friday, June 20, 2025.
Matthew Hinton/AP
The decide indicated within the order that the situations of Khalil’s launch shall not embody digital monitoring or a requirement {that a} bond be instantly posted.
“The bail situations shall embody different necessities that the US Justice of the Peace Decide deems acceptable, together with as to these states to which and thru which the Petitioner might journey, and when the Petitioner should give up his passport or passports,” Farbiarz wrote.
Circumstances for Khalil’s launch, as set by U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Michael Hammer, embody that he give up his passport to authorities on the Jena detention facility the place he was held, in line with the courtroom order. He should additionally limit home journey to the place he and his in-laws stay, in addition to the place he might have lawyer conferences, courtroom appearances and legislative conferences. The federal government will return his inexperienced card and there might be no digital monitoring, in line with the courtroom order.
In the course of the telephonic listening to earlier than Decide Hammer on Friday relating to the bail situations, the DOJ lawyer argued that Khalil’s inexperienced card shouldn’t be returned to him as a result of the immigration decide in Jena had simply issued an order of elimination. Khalil’s attorneys argued that he ought to hold his inexperienced card, permitting for an attraction of the immigration decide’s ruling. Hammer agreed with Khalil’s legal professionals and ordered that the inexperienced card be returned.
Farbiarz issued his order after denying a movement by the federal government to remain the ruling for seven days.
In the course of the listening to, Farbiarz mentioned the federal government made no try to show that Khalil’s launch would irreparably hurt them indirectly, and that Khalil represented a flight danger.
“What all that proof provides as much as is an absence of violence, an absence of property destruction, an absence of something that may be characterised as incitement to violence,” the decide mentioned of Khalil, who helped lead Columbia’s encampment protests in opposition to the struggle in Gaza over the spring.
An lawyer for Khalil, Alina Das, reasserted Khalil’s perception that he’s being punished for speech that needs to be protected by the First Modification.
“The federal government’s newest actions affirm what we have alleged on this petition all alongside, that retaliatory detention is the federal government’s objective, that the aim of each step that the federal government has taken on this case has been to make sure that Mr. Khalil stays locked away till he’s deported as retaliation and punishment for his speech and viewpoint,” she mentioned.
Final week, Decide Farbiarz issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from persevering with to detain Khalil based mostly on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s willpower that his continued presence within the nation would pose a danger to international coverage — however the decide subsequently sided with the federal government in ruling that Khalil might proceed to be detained on the grounds that he misrepresented info on his inexperienced card software, which Khalil denies.
