Mahmoud Khalil loses latest appeal as immigration case stays open

Mahmoud Khalil lost his latest appeal to dismiss his immigration case earlier this month, keeping the legal fight against the 31-year-old Columbia University graduate student open. Khalil, a Syrian national born to Palestinian parents, was arrested by ICE in March 2025 and detained for 104 days.

The denial leaves Khalil facing a case in which he is accused of fraud on his green card application. He was freed last June after an army of lawyers sued the administration, and he now appears in the current issue of New York Magazine with an essay titled "I Miss My Old Life."

Columbia and the March arrest

Khalil was a graduate student at Columbia University and led Columbia's Apartheid Divest group. In 2024, he was a lead organizer of the anti-Israel tentifada at Columbia University, which included the storming of Hamilton Hall. The same campus later refused him entry, according to the facts provided here.

His March 2025 arrest came as part of President Trump's executive orders combating antisemitism. That sequence left Khalil in detention for 104 days before his release last June, turning his immigration status into a separate legal battle rather than a closed episode.

Khalil's essay and daily routine

In his essay, Khalil wrote, "One year after my abduction by ICE, I still watch my back every day," and said he had "been made into a symbol against my will." He also wrote, "I miss attending events at Columbia or meeting friends on Low Steps," and said he no longer takes carefree strolls through Times Square or Washington Square Park.

Khalil said he rides the subways daily because he cannot afford a cab every day, conceals himself behind sunglasses and a baseball cap on the train, and buries his face in a book so no one will recognize him. When he writes, "nothing angers me more. The word flattens me," he is describing the cost of being cast as an activist in public debate while his own case remains active.

What happens in Khalil's case

The latest appeal denial means the challenge to dismiss Khalil's case did not end the proceeding. For Khalil, that leaves the fraud accusation and the immigration dispute moving forward together, with the next step determined by the same legal system that already sent him through arrest, detention, and release.