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A federal appeals<\/span> court on Thursday threw out a lower court\u2019s June order to release Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil from detention, triggering questions among his supporters about whether the government can immediately re-detain Khalil for deportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n In short, Khalil is safe from further detention \u2014 for about a month and a half, his legal team told The Intercept. Khalil is fighting two separate legal battles: one in federal court, and the second in immigration court.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand there\u2019s a lot of concern about whether ICE can go pick him up again right now,\u201d said Brett Max Kaufman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union and member of Khalil\u2019s legal team. \u201cBefore the appeals process is over, that cannot happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Khalil, a green card holder, at his New York apartment in March and quickly flew him to a Louisiana detention center<\/a>. He spent the next three months there while the government sought to deport him, missing the birth of his child.<\/p>\n Khalil was released<\/a> in June<\/a> after New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled that the Trump administration\u2019s detention of Khalil was likely illegal and violated his First Amendment rights. As a graduate student at Columbia University<\/a>, Khalil had been a vocal participant in student activism opposing Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza \u2014 putting a target on his back <\/a>for the Trump administration,\u00a0which has sought to crush advocacy for Palestine under the guise of combating antisemitism<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which rules on appeals in\u00a0New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, overturned the New Jersey federal court\u2019s release order in a split 2\u20131 decision. The two majority opinion judges \u2014 appointees of Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump \u2014 stated the lower court didn\u2019t have jurisdiction over the free speech claims case, while the dissenting judge, a Biden appointee, argued it did and Khalil\u2019s release should hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even though the appeals court tossed the order that bailed Khalil out of detention, the decision does not immediately go into effect, according to court rules.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s decision goes into effect in 45 days, at which point Khalil would again be exposed to detention. Before that deadline, Khalil can appeal the 3rd Circuit\u2019s recent decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean Thursday\u2019s decision isn\u2019t alarming, Kaufman said \u2014\u00a0both for Khalil personally and for free speech rights overall.<\/p>\n \u201cIf this decision stands, the government might be able to snatch you up for your speech and put you in detention for years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The decision essentially endorses the idea that even if someone\u2019s free speech rights were violated, Kaufman added, the government can still detain and\u00a0seek to deport them for their activism, making them wait in detention as they challenge their case in immigration court. <\/p>\n \u201cThat just defeats the entire purpose of the First Amendment,\u201d Kaufman said. \u201cIf this decision stands, the government might be able to snatch you up for your speech and put you in detention for years.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a> released by the ACLU on Thursday, Khalil called the ruling \u201cdeeply disappointing\u201d but reaffirmed his commitment to activism for Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n \u201cThe door may have been opened for potential re-detainment down the line, but it has not closed our commitment to Palestine and to justice and accountability,\u201d he said. \u201cI will continue to fight, through every legal avenue and with every ounce of determination, until my rights, and the rights of others like me, are fully protected.\u201d<\/p>\n If Khalil pursues another appeal, it would allow all 14 judges \u2014 rather than the customary three \u2014\u00a0on the appeals court to weigh in on the case and possibly reverse Thursday\u2019s decision, potentially reviving Khalil\u2019s release order.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s appeals court decision also allows the Trump administration to resume its separate fight to get Khalil deported in immigration court. There, Trump administration attorneys have used an obscure immigration policy to argue Khalil\u2019s activism for Palestine has adverse consequences for U.S. foreign policy<\/a>. The government has claimed Khalil has ties to the militant Palestinian group Hamas, which attorneys assert is false. Trump attorneys have also accused Khalil of lying on his green card application.<\/p>\n In April, an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled that the government does have grounds to deport Khalil, but attorneys appealed, and the decision which is now being reviewed by the Board of Immigration appeals. If the board, known as the BIA, sides with Khalil, the Trump administration\u2019s immigration case against him would end.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the board sides with the government, upholding the immigration removal, Khalil could pursue an additional appeal in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which governs decisions in Louisiana. Such a process may take months to play out. Appeals courts, in such immigration cases, can also offer a stay, halting the government\u2019s deportation order, even after a BIA decision.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a prominent ally of Khalil\u2019s, condemned the court\u2019s ruling in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year\u2019s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil was more than just a chilling act of political repression, it was an attack on all of our constitutional rights,\u201d Mamdani wrote<\/a> on X. \u201cNow, as the crackdown on pro-Palestinian free speech continues, Mahmoud is being threatened with rearrest. Mahmoud is free\u2014and must remain free.\u201d<\/p>\n Other pro-Palestinian activists detained by the Trump administration, such as former Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi<\/a>, who is also a green card holder, and Tufts University doctoral student R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk<\/a>, are awaiting their appeals<\/a>. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing similar arguments for Mahdawi and \u00d6zt\u00fcrk, who were both released last year after federal judges also ruled their constitutional rights were violated.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n