The new filing in federal court comes after ICE said they would keep Mr. Khalil detained based on false allegations following a court ruling that detention on the Secretary of State’s say-so is unconstitutional 

June 16, 2025, Newark, NJ – Mahmoud Khalil’s legal team wrote the court today asking for his immediate release on bail, or, at a minimum, to order his return to New Jersey. The request comes after the government informed the court Friday that it would continue to detain Mr. Khalil in a remote facility in Jena, Louisiana, based on false and pretextual allegations connected with his green card application because a preliminary injunction that entered into effect Friday blocks his detention on purported foreign policy grounds. The federal judge overseeing his case, Michael E. Farbiarz, wrote Friday that, even though the government virtually never detains anyone on such “misrepresentation” charges, the court would not, at this point, prohibit the government from relying upon such pretextual and retaliatory allegations to continue Mr. Khalil’s detention. 

“The government is making desperate, last ditch attempts to keep my husband unjustly imprisoned,” said Dr. Noor Abdalla, Mahmoud Khalil’s wife. “We are not afraid and will not be intimidated, because we know, and the government knows, it is only a matter of time before Mahmoud is free. The American people are with us, and can see right through the government’s unjust attempts to delay his release. No matter what the government pulls, we will bring Mahmoud home safe.”

“Like it has for the past three months, the government is using all of the tools available to it to hinder justice for Mahmoud,” said Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel in the ACLU’s Center for Democracy. “The government practically never holds people in detention on a charge like this, and it’s clear that the government is doing anything they can to punish Mahmoud for his speech about Palestine. We will not stop until he’s home with his family.”

Today’s filing notes that Mr. Khalil is neither a flight risk nor a danger to anyone. It further explains that the court previously recognized that continued detention, based solely on the sorts of misrepresentations alleged by the government, is exceedingly rare and clearly only in further retaliation for his speech on Palestine.

“This is just another cruel attempt by the government to punish Mahmoud for his protected speech,” said Marc Van Der Hout, founding partner at Van Der Hout LLP. “Detaining someone on a charge like this is highly unusual and, frankly, outrageous. The district court soundly and clearly rejected DHS’s attempt to deport Mahmoud for speaking out about the genocide in Gaza, and there continues to be no constitutional basis for his detention.”

The government’s immigration case on the foreign policy grounds rested entirely on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s foreign policy “determination,” which the federal court has now enjoined. The government later added the unfounded allegations that Mr. Khalil had not disclosed his previous employment and associations accurately on his green card application. Mr. Khalil’s legal team refuted those allegations with overwhelming evidence which the government did not even attempt to respond to. 

“This is a classic move from the government’s playbook: make false claims and delay, delay, delay,” said Amy Belsher, Director of Immigrants’ Rights Litigation at the NYCLU. “There’s zero legitimate reason for Mahmoud Khalil to remain detained — it's clear that the government's outstanding charge is baseless and retaliatory. No more lies or dragging feet. Mahmoud must be released immediately to go home to his family and newborn son.”

“Because its outrageous attempt to detain Mahmoud based only on Secretary Rubio’s say-so has been struck down as unconstitutional, the government now stoops to a new low by doing what the federal court said the government virtually never does—detaining a U.S. permanent resident based on an alleged omission in an immigration application,” said Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR, at CUNY School of Law. “This only further proves Mahmoud’s claim that the government is retaliating against him for exercising his right to speak in defense of Palestinian rights and we won’t stop until he is free.”

“The government’s decision to continue to detain Mahmoud on these patently false and pretextual charges is only more evidence of their cowardly vindictiveness toward him and their unrelenting desire to punish him for speaking out against them and their complicity in genocide,” said Baher Azmy, Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Mr. Khalil is represented by Dratel & Lewis, the Center for Constitutional Rights, CLEAR, Van Der Hout LLP, Washington Square Legal Services, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the ACLU of New Jersey, the ACLU of Louisiana, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

For all case materials, please see here.