Joe Biden-Appointed Judge Orders Release of Pro-Hamas Activist Mahmoud Khalil

June 21, 2025

A federal judge appointed by President Joe Biden has ordered the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student and pro-Hamas activist, who was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this year, as reported by The Gateway Pundit.

The decision, issued Friday by U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, comes after months of legal proceedings that had previously halted Khalil’s deportation.

Khalil, a Lebanese national, had been one of the leading figures in anti-Israel campus demonstrations at Columbia and Barnard College.

Mahmoud Khalil stands outside Columbia University, where he’s a graduate student, in April 2024. On March 12, 2025, a U.S. judge extended his order blocking federal authorities from deporting a detained Khalil. His lawyers say his arrest by Department of Homeland Security agents outside his university residence in Manhattan was in retaliation for his outspoken advocacy against Israel’s military assault on Gaza following the militant group Hamas’ October 2023 attack, and thus violated Khalil’s right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

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He was arrested in March by ICE agents acting under the Trump administration, following the revocation of both his student visa and green card by the U.S. State Department. He had been held in detention and was the last major anti-Israel protest organizer still in federal custody.

According to prior court filings, Khalil had a documented history of inflammatory statements. In one statement during a protest, he declared:

“As long as Columbia continues to invest and to benefit from Israeli apartheid, the students will continue to resist.”

He followed up by saying, “Not only protests and encampments, the limit is the sky.”

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Khalil previously worked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) until 2023. That agency, which received approximately $1 billion in funding from the Biden administration, has come under scrutiny for alleged ties to Hamas.

Reports indicate that at least 12 UNRWA staffers participated in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7.

Judge Farbiarz’s ruling on Friday follows an earlier decision by another federal judge, Jesse M. Furman, appointed by former President Barack Obama, who in March blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Khalil.

Furman ruled that Khalil “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise.”

Supporters of ICE-detained Mahmoud Khalil march in downtown New York City on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, to demand his release from immigration custody. Khalil, who helped lead last year’s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, holds a green card and is a permanent U.S. resident but has been detained by the federal government.

While ICE had sought to move forward with deportation based on national security concerns and visa violations, Farbiarz determined that Khalil could be released on bail pending further proceedings. Details of the bail conditions were not immediately available.

The release of Khalil has sparked renewed debate over how federal courts are handling cases involving foreign nationals tied to pro-Hamas or anti-Israel activity within the United States. Khalil remains in the U.S. while further legal actions are pending.

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