Lawyers for Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil vow to take his case to the US Supreme Court, after a divided federal appeals court declined to reconsider a ruling that opened the door to President Donald Trump’s administration re-arresting and deporting the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activist.
The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals split 6-5 along ideological lines to reject Khalil’s request to revisit a ruling a 2-1 panel of the Philadelphia-based court delivered in January that had concluded a lower-court judge had no jurisdiction to order his release from immigration detention last year.
He was among the most prominent of a number of foreign students detained last year by immigration authorities under the Trump administration after engaging in anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activism on their college campuses.
If the 3rd Circuit’s ruling is allowed to take effect, Khalil could face the prospect of being arrested again and deported, after the Board of Immigration Appeals in April rejected his appeal of an immigration judge’s order that he be removed to Algeria or Syria.
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