Overview
- A federal appeals court on Friday denied Mahmoud Khalil’s request for a full-court rehearing, leaving in place a ruling that blocks him from suing in federal district court while his immigration case moves through the separate appeals system.
- Three judges dissented from the denial and warned that the ruling threatens the civil liberties of Khalil and other noncitizens by limiting prompt judicial review of detention claims.
- Khalil’s lawyers said they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case and seek a stay of the appeals-court order while they also press an appeal of the Board of Immigration Appeals removal order to the Fifth Circuit.
- His legal team alleges the immigration judge ignored evidence and sustained after-the-fact charges they say were retaliatory for Khalil’s pro-Palestinian activism, and a separate federal injunction currently bars ICE from re-arresting or deporting him.
- The dispute highlights how immigration appeals are handled inside the Justice Department rather than the independent courts and raises broader questions about executive power over deportation and the ability of noncitizens to obtain timely judicial oversight.