Mahmoud Khalil Finally Released Months After Being Illegally Kidnapped By ICE For His Speech

Legal Issues

from the the-land-of-the-not-so-free dept

After months of what can only be described as government kidnapping, Mahmoud Khalil is finally out of detention and released on bail. The Columbia grad student and green card holder was detained by ICE for the heinous crime of participating in pro-Palestinian protests—or as Marco Rubio apparently sees it, having opinions Rubio doesn’t like. It took a federal judge basically telling the government “the Constitution still exists, you fascist dipshits” to get him released—just three months later than it should have happened.

On Friday, he was finally released to return to his family, including his wife and infant child, who had not yet been born when Trump’s goons snatched Khalil.

As you may recall, two weeks ago a judge had ruled that Rubio’s stated reason for detaining Khalil was so obviously unconstitutional that he should be released. The DOJ then claimed that they still had other reasons to keep Khalil detained, and it looked for a little while like those might actually win out. However, on Friday, the judge ordered Khalil be released, with the bail condition being that he surrender his passport/travel docs, but that ICE provide him with a certified copy of his passport and green card.

Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered Khalil’s release on bail Friday after finding he is not a flight risk or a danger to public safety. The judge said it’s “highly unusual” to be seeking his detention at this point.

The judge also cited several “extraordinary circumstances” in Khalil’s case that led him to order his release, including “that there is a due process violative effort to punish” the Columbia University graduate who played a central role in negotiations on behalf of pro-Palestinian student protesters last year.

Khalil “is not a flight risk, and the evidence that has been presented to me at least is that he is not a danger to the community, period, full stop,” Farbiarz said.

While the DOJ promptly appealed, they took their sweet time actually obeying the judge’s order, leading to a follow-up text order on the docket by the magistrate judge on the case, Michael Hammer, wondering why they had not yet released Khalil:

TEXT ORDER: By Order entered earlier today that set the Petitioner’s bail conditions [D.E. 317], the parties were directed to file, by 6:30 p.m. CST, a letter indicating that Bail Condition #1 had been completed. As of this Order, the parties have not done so. The parties shall file the letter forthwith.. So Ordered by Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer on 6/20/2025

Soon after, both parties filed a letter stating that the conditions (regarding his passport) had been met, and next thing we knew, he was on a flight home.

Once again, the only reason Khalil was detained was because of his participation in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. The US cannot call itself a supporter of free speech while doing shit like that. Protests are part of the American way and are protected by the First Amendment.

In an interview he gave with the NY Times over the weekend, he notes that he came to the US knowing that we supposedly have strong free speech protections that would enable him to speak his mind about the treatment of his fellow Palestinians:

While he did not romanticize America, he believed that the country had strong institutions and a robust rule of law and that his speech would be protected.

“I came here with a clear understanding of freedom of expression,” he said. “Even when it comes to Palestine. I never had any sort of concern that speaking up for Palestine would actually get me in jail.”

He compared his treatment by ICE to the kind of government secret police abductions in Syria, which he claims was one of the reasons he left Syria in the first place. His case, once again, makes a mockery of what we’re told America is about. As he notes:

“If you have money, there is rule of law,” he said. “If you are abiding by the very narrow definition of what this administration is defining an American value to be, you may get rule of law. Otherwise you have to fight tooth and nail to get your due process and your rights.”

Khalil’s fight is far from over, but his unfortunate story is the kind that you know, years from now, will be one of the infamous, shameful moments in American history that kids are taught in schools about yet another moment when America showed how far it was from reaching its ideals, and how quick some powerful fascists were to spit on the basic promised (if rarely reached) values and principles of America, in order to lock up and intimidate those who seek to use their voice to make the world a better place.

Filed Under: doj, ice, kidnapping, mahmoud khalil, marco rubio