Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who has been at the center of the Donald Trump administration’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian activists, will take his case to the Supreme Court, his legal team announced Friday, Anadolu reports.

The decision to appeal to the country’s highest court came after the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 6-5, just hours earlier, that it will not review the decision that cleared the way for Khalil’s deportation.

“Today’s decision is not the final word, and we still believe strongly in our arguments for next steps,” Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said in a statement.

“Federal courts should have the power to step in when the government uses our nation’s immigration system to punish people for their constitutionally protected speech. If the administration “Trump can target, arrest, detain and deport Mahmoud for his word, then he can do that to anyone who expresses an opinion he disagrees with,” he added.

Khalil’s lawyers last week filed a separate appeal against the deportation order issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), seeking a complete halt to the proceedings. The complaint was filed with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking to overturn the decision after the judge in the case allegedly refused to consider relevant evidence.

The complaint also alleges broad misconduct in the case, including allegations that government officials interfered in proceedings by pressuring the immigration judge who presided over the case, which took place in an immigration appeals court under supervision. of the Department of Justice and not an independent judicial body.

“We hope the Supreme Court will understand how dangerous the Third Circuit’s decision was, not only for Mahmoud, but also for other noncitizens the administration has targeted in retaliation,” said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Khalil, a spokesman for the pro-Gaza protests at the university and a legal resident of In the US, he was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March 2025 and held for 104 days.

A federal judge later ruled that his detention was unconstitutional. However, the Trump administration won an appeal earlier this March, allowing the case to continue in immigration court.

Source: prizrenpost