Newly released Mahmoud Khalil spotted back at anti-Israel protest at Columbia University

Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil returned to Columbia University on Sunday to lead another protest march just days after his release from an immigration detention facility on a judge’s orders.

Khalil was seen being honored in New York City and gave a speech referencing the Trump administration detaining and attempting to deport him.

“Well, who is Mahmoud Khalil?” Khlalil said. “That’s what the administration has tried its best to portray me as someone who’s violent. Mahmoud Khalil is a human rights defender. Mahmoud Khalil is a freedom fighter. Mahmoud Khalil is a refugee. Mahmoud Khalil is a father and husband. And above all, Mahmoud Khalil is Palestinian.”

He called this latest protest the beginning of a “longer fight towards justice.”

Mahmoud Khalil addressed a crowd to celebrate his release. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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“The wave of repression that the Trump administration initiated with my detention was intended to silence the movement for Palestinian liberation,” Khalil said. “It was intended to scare people into silence. It was intended to distract us from the fact that the U.S. government is a killing machine in Palestine and across the world. But they completely failed. Millions of people spoke up even louder, that it is our responsibility to end this genocide, no matter the personal cost, no matter the personal cost. And that’s exactly what I will continue trying to do as long, so long as I’m able, so long as I am breathing.”

Additional footage across social media showed him holding a Palestinian flag and leading a chant of “Columbia, Columbia, you can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide.”

Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil attended a rally to welcome him home after being released from immigration custody. (REUTERS/Angelina Katsanis)

Khalil was arrested in March at Columbia over his anti-Israel activism on campus, and an immigration judge ruled he could be removed from the country based on a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that said his campus protests were at odds with U.S. foreign policy interests.

Rubio cited a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act to justify his finding, and U.S. District Judge Farbiarz later enjoined the secretary from using that determination to deport Khalil.

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However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also added a second reason for keeping Khalil detained and attempted to deport him. The DHS said Khalil allegedly omitted key information from his green card application about groups with which he was affiliated, including the Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Pro-Hamas activist and former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil posed for selfies after his release from federal immigration detention in Jena, La., Friday, June 20, 2025. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

Farbiarz ordered on Friday that Khalil be released on bail from an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana after determining that Khalil would not be considered a flight risk.

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Fox News’ Brie Stimson contributed to this report.