Mahmoud Khalil asks Supreme Court to let U.S. judges quickly reverse immigration detentions

Mahmoud Khalil speaks during a news conference in New York in July. The pro-Palestinian activist has asked the Supreme Court to let judges quickly reverse immigration detentions.Seth Wenig / APShareAdd NBC News to GoogleOct. 19, 2026, 6:54 PM EDT / Source: The Associated PressBy The Associated PressWASHINGTON — Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let federal judges quickly determine the legality of immigration-related detentions so that people cannot be held for months or years without judicial oversight.

In papers filed with the high court, Khalil asked it to overturn a ruling earlier this year by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that found federal courts do not have jurisdiction to review the legality of the detentions until immigration courts had fully considered each case.

Khalil, a lawful permanent U.S. resident, was detained by immigration authorities last year because of his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University in the spring of 2024.

The U.S. government argued at the time that Khalil’s presence in the U.S. was harmful to the country’s foreign policy interests.

As a result, the former Columbia graduate student spent over three months in detention before a federal judge in New Jersey ordered him freed after finding that the federal government had acted unconstitutionally.

Khalil told a remote news conference Monday that the appeal was “bigger than just my ability to stay here.” He said he wanted to ensure that thousands of immigrants, documented or not, can challenge the Trump administration’s “unlawful” attempts to stop protected speech.

He said the administration knows “all too well its baseless allegations and smears against me cannot survive the slightest scrutiny in federal courts,” so it wants to channel it into “kangaroo” immigration courts where it can control the outcome.

Although the Supreme Court typically agrees to grant only a small percentage of appeals requests, the U.S. government has already asked the high court to overturn a federal appeals court decision that upheld a judge’s decision to release Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri. That ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, directly conflicted with the 3rd Circuit decision in the Khalil case.

Sometimes, conflicting appeals court rulings can increase the chances that the Supreme Court agrees to hear a case. If it does, oral arguments before the justices would likely occur sometime next year.