A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out a lower court’s 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. In short, Khalil is safe from further detention — 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.“We understand there’s a lot of concern about whether ICE can go pick him up again right now,” said Brett Max Kaufman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union and member of Khalil’s legal team. “Before the appeals process is over, that cannot happen.”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. He spent the next three months there while the government sought to deport him, missing the birth of his child.Khalil was released in June after New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled that the Trump administration’s detention of Khalil was likely illegal and violated his First Amendment rights. As a graduate student at Columbia University, Khalil had been a vocal participant in student activism opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza — putting a target on his back for the Trump administration, which has sought to crush advocacy for Palestine under the guise of combating antisemitism.On Thursday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which rules on appeals in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, overturned the New Jersey federal court’s release order in a split 2–1 decision. The two majority opinion judges — appointees of Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump — stated the lower court didn’t have jurisdiction over the free speech claims case, while the dissenting judge, a Biden appointee, argued it did and Khalil’s release should hold. 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.Thursday’s 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’s recent decision. That doesn’t mean Thursday’s decision isn’t alarming, Kaufman said — both for Khalil personally and for free speech rights overall.“If this decision stands, the government might be able to snatch you up for your speech and put you in detention for years.”The decision essentially endorses the idea that even if someone’s free speech rights were violated, Kaufman added, the government can still detain and seek to deport them for their activism, making them wait in detention as they challenge their case in immigration court. “That just defeats the entire purpose of the First Amendment,” Kaufman said. “If this decision stands, the government might be able to snatch you up for your speech and put you in detention for years.” Related Judge Finds Rubio and Noem Intentionally Targeted Pro-Palestine Activists to Chill Speech In a statement released by the ACLU on Thursday, Khalil called the ruling “deeply disappointing” but reaffirmed his commitment to activism for Palestinian rights.“The 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,” he said. “I 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.”If Khalil pursues another appeal, it would allow all 14 judges — rather than the customary three — on the appeals court to weigh in on the case and possibly reverse Thursday’s decision, potentially reviving Khalil’s release order. Thursday’s 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’s activism for Palestine has adverse consequences for U.S. foreign policy. 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. Related Deportation, Inc. 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’s immigration case against him would end. 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’s deportation order, even after a BIA decision.New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a prominent ally of Khalil’s, condemned the court’s ruling in a statement on Thursday.“Last year’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil was more than just a chilling act of political repression, it was an attack on all of our constitutional rights,” Mamdani wrote on X. “Now, as the crackdown on pro-Palestinian free speech continues, Mahmoud is being threatened with rearrest. Mahmoud is free—and must remain free.”Other pro-Palestinian activists detained by the Trump administration, such as former Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, who is also a green card holder, and Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, are awaiting their appeals. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing similar arguments for Mahdawi and Öztürk, who were both released last year after federal judges also ruled their constitutional rights were violated. Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman who was arrested in 2024 while protesting outside Columbia University and was detained in March by the Trump administration, remains in immigration detention in Texas. The government continues to allege she also has ties with Hamas, which she continues to refute in court.The post Despite Court Ruling, ICE Can’t Detain Mahmoud Khalil — For Now appeared first on The Intercept.