The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals just reversed a lower court order releasing pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil from ICE custody, arguing that the lower court didn’t even have jurisdiction over the immigration challenge.
That challenge is now being handled in the immigration court by an appeals board.
Here’s more from the AP:
A federal appeals panel on Thursday reversed a lower court decision that released former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from an immigration jail, bringing the government one step closer to detaining and ultimately deporting the Palestinian activist.
A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia instructed the lower court to dismiss Khalil’s habeas petition, a court filing that secured his release. The panel ruled that the federal district court in New Jersey did not have jurisdiction over the matter because immigration challenges are handled differently under the law.
In a 2-1 decision, the panel ruled that federal immigration laws require deportation challenges to be made by filing a petition for review of a final order of removal with a federal appeals court — not a lower-level district court.
“That scheme ensures that petitioners get just one bite at the apple—not zero or two,” the panel wrote. “But it also means that some petitioners, like Khalil, will have to wait to seek relief for allegedly unlawful government conduct.”
The law bars Khalil “from attacking his detention and removal in a habeas petition,” the panel added.
The decision marked a major win for the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign to detain and deport noncitizens who joined protests against Israel.
The appeals court decision comes as an appeals board in the immigration court system is weighing a previous order from an immigration judge that found Khalil could be deported. His attorneys have argued that the federal order should take precedence.
That judge has suggested that Khalil could be deported to Algeria, where he maintains citizenship through a distant relative, or Syria, where he was born in a refugee camp to a Palestinian family.
His attorneys have said he would face mortal danger if he were forced to return to either country.
Then deport him to Gaza so that he can live with Hamas and the Palestinians that he so vigoursly supports. Surely he’ll be safe there…