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Despite his grim circumstances, Mahmoud Khalil can’t help but laugh.
Walking through Congress’s hallowed halls, the Palestinian student activist who may be inching toward deportation is not yet ready to waver. He admits he’s in “the scary part” of his ordeal, but he has a new reason to like his odds.
“Now it’s easier to make my case because they’ve seen the illegal actions and the unlawful action of DHS and ICE,” Khalil said. “They know they went too far.”
It was nearly a year ago that Khalil became a household name as the first high-profile ICE apprehension of Donald Trump’s return to office. Last March, he was detained at his New York City apartment complex over his advocacy at Columbia University for Palestinian rights and against American complicity in Israel’s siege and bombardment of Gaza.
But the political winds have shifted. Khalil is no longer just a target, but a witness to ICE’s hard streak, one that he endured for more than 100 days of detention. Americans are increasingly sympathetic.
A February Marist poll found that a majority of Americans now believe ICE has overstepped its authority, with approval ratings for the agency dropping to historic lows. A January YouGov survey showed similar trends, with growing concern about due process violations in immigration enforcement, and an Economist/YouGov poll revealed increasing skepticism about aggressive detention policies that separate families and detain legal residents.
“I was the first to be called a terrorist sympathizer,” Khalil reflected, recalling the rhetoric sounded by Trump as he was being whisked away to a 70-man dorm in a Louisiana detention center while his wife was eight months pregnant. “Now this administration has used it against anyone who was protesting against them in the streets.”
For Khalil, Wednesday’s packed schedule of congressional meetings felt different from previous trips to Washington. Progressive Democrats Delia Ramirez of Illinois, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania filled his morning. He discussed his own case and ICE detentions in general, with a handful of other congressional meetings still set for the rest of the day and week.
Though not the darling of Trump, Stephen Miller, many Republican lawmakers, or Department of Homeland Security leadership, Khalil is far from persona non grata on Capitol Hill. Ramirez agreed during their meeting that the government “must” drop the entire case. Later in the morning, a congressional staffer stopped an elevator door from closing to say that an intern wanted to meet him. Passersby stopped to say hello.
As for attitudes on ICE, the shift has been swift. What was once seen more favorably as tough border enforcement is increasingly viewed as overreach, while congressional offices report surging constituent calls about ICE raids at schools and hospitals. Even Republicans who championed deportation powers now field uncomfortable questions about due process, making support for ICE a political liability.
The shift matters not only for Khalil’s own case but potentially for thousands of others. A January third circuit court of appeals decision in his habeas corpus case has sent shockwaves through immigration law circles: the three-judge panel ruled that federal district courts lack jurisdiction over his case while he is in removal proceedings. If broadly applied, that would mean immigrants must wait until their cases fully proceed through the immigration system before they can challenge their detention in federal court.
“People cannot challenge their removal or the removal proceedings or the reasons they are going to be removed from the country until their case works its way fully through the immigration system,” Amy Greer, one of Khalil’s attorney’s, explained. “What that means is they have no access to justice, or any kind of meaningful review of why they were in removal proceedings, until that whole case proceeds.”
The decision becomes even more troubling when considering who controls the immigration system.
“The judge, the prosecutors in the case, the Board of Immigration Appeals, USCIS [US Citizenship and Immigration Services] – all of these people work for Pam Bondi,” Greer said, referring to the US attorney general, a stalwart Trump ally.
The third circuit decision could have sweeping consequences. When appellate courts make such rulings, they become binding on all lower courts within that jurisdiction. Should the case reach the supreme court and the ruling be upheld, it would apply nationwide to anyone challenging their immigration detention.
The complexity extends further because Khalil’s case exists in two court systems simultaneously. His habeas petition challenging his detention was filed in New Jersey, where he was briefly held before being transferred to Louisiana. But his immigration case is proceeding in Louisiana, where an immigration judge ordered his deportation in September 2025.
Khalil’s detention lasted 104 days, during which his wife gave birth to their first child, now 10 months old. He was released in June 2025 after federal judge Michael Farbiarz ruled his detention unconstitutional and found he was neither a flight risk nor a community threat. The government appealed that decision.
At the time of his arrest, Trump called Khalil a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” and a “terrorist sympathizer”, insisting there were other students in the crosshairs “who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic and anti-American activity”. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, claimed Khalil’s presence posed “adverse foreign policy consequences”.
Months later, Khalil is reminded that he’s not fighting alone. “The actions that they did against me were by design, by this administration, all the lies that were spread: now they’re spreading them about other people,” he said.
“Now, it’s about raising the alarm.”
