A federal judge sided with Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-Israel ringleader detained by the Trump administration, blocking the government from continuing to hold him on “foreign policy” grounds.

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz granted Wednesday a preliminary injunction preventing the government from detaining or removing Khalil, 30, based on a memorandum issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The memo asserted that Khalil’s presence “compromises a compelling foreign policy interest.”

“The government cannot claim an interest in enforcing what appears to be an unconstitutional law,” Farbiarz wrote, adding that the threat to free speech raised serious First Amendment concerns.

The ruling is a significant legal setback for the administration’s efforts to deport Khalil, who has been held at a detention facility in Louisiana following his involvement in anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University.

Khalil, a green card holder, was arrested after leading student protests on the Ivy League campus. He has argued that his free speech rights were being “eroded” by the Trump administration.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorneys have argued that Khalil’s free speech claims were a “red herring,” saying that the 30-year-old green card holder lied on his visa applications.

Khalil, they said, willfully failed to disclose his employment with the Syrian office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he applied for permanent U.S. residency. The agency also accused Khalil of failing to disclose his work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and membership in Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Students and others demonstrate during a protest outside the gates to the Columbia University main campus in New York City on April 21. (Reuters/Ryan Murphy)

Rubio has cited a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil’s removal from the U.S. The provision allows the secretary of state to deport noncitizens if the secretary determines their presence in the U.S. “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

Rubio accused Khalil of participating in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which foster a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”

“Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,” Rubio wrote.

Khalil has Algerian citizenship through his mother, but was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria.

Hundreds of anti-ICE protesters are gathered outside of the USCIS San Francisco Field Office on Sansome Street and marched in streets to demand release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University who is arrested by ICE and facing deportation, in San Francisco, California, United States on April 14, 2025.  (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

As of Wednesday evening, no further hearings are scheduled in Khalil’s immigration case. 

“We’re just waiting for the judge to issue her ruling,” Johnny Sinodis, a partner at Van Der Hout LLP who is representing Mahmoud Khalil in immigration proceedings, said during a press conference following the hearing. 

Meanwhile, the federal court’s preliminary injunction will prevent Khalil’s removal until at least June 13.