The Trump administration scored a big win on Thursday morning, with the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the federal district court in New Jersey had no jurisdiction to order the release of pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil. The Algerian national was originally slated for deportation back in March on the basis that he failed to disclose his terrorist-supporting views and associations on his green card application. That set off a nearly year-long legal battle that has twisted and turned through multiple venues.
In June, Judge Michael Farbiarz, who was appointed by Joe Biden, ordered him released, claiming that the revocation of his green card and subsequent deportation would likely be found unconstitutional. That came after he accepted a habeas corpus petition filed by Khalil and his legal team.
Original Coverage: Federal Judge Orders Release of Anti-Israel Activist Mahmoud Khalil
Yet, the appeals court found Farbiarz had no jurisdiction to ever take up the matter. Instead, the panel stated in a 2-1 vote that Khalil had to go through the federal immigration court system to challenge his detention.
A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that a judge had no jurisdiction to order the release of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, delivering President Trump’s administration a victory in its efforts to deport the pro-Palestinian activist.
The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals opened the door to Khalil being re-arrested after it ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit he filed challenging his initial detention.
That holding came from US Circuit Judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas, both of whom were appointed by Republican presidents, who said that under the Immigration and Nationality Act, his claims needed to be instead heard through an appeal of a final order of removal from an immigration judge
In other words, immigrants do not get to bypass the court system that is specifically designed to hear their immigration-related grievances. The move by Khalil's legal team to litigate this in New Jersey was obviously an attempt to find a left-wing judge who would rule in their favor.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals basically says that Congress wrote the laws outlining the proper redress of grievances by aliens being deported and Mahmoud Khalil has to follow them.
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) January 15, 2026
The effect of the opinion is that aliens are subject to the laws of Congress just like… pic.twitter.com/kabaxdWMvB
What happens next? It seems likely that ICE will be able to re-detain Khalil, given that the order to release him has been vacated. In response, his lawyers are pledging to appeal the ruling, likely seeking rehearing en banc first, though the 3rd Circuit is majority conservative, making it somewhat unlikely an en banc hearing would change the panel's decision in the case.
Still, I can't help but feel frustrated by this ruling, not because of anything the 3rd Circuit did, but because a district court judge was able to circumvent the law and stall this case out for over six months without ever having jurisdiction in the first place. I understand this is how the system works, but there is clearly a contingent of lower court judges who are willing to abuse their power in less-than-legal ways to exact certain political outcomes. I suppose there's no simple solution to that, but it still seems absurd to the layman.
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