Mahmoud Khalil again set for deportation after new appellate court ruling.

The District Court Judge did not have jurisdiction to release Khalil.

A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that a judge had no jurisdiction to order the release of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, delivering President Trump’s administration a victory in its efforts to deport the pro-Palestinian activist.

The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals opened the door to Khalil being re-arrested after it ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit he filed challenging his initial detention.

This is the best sort of ruling here, assuming other District Court Judges decide to follow the precedent. Creating the precedent that these sorts of cases to to the correct courts is really what the state should be after in general. Yeah, Khalil specifically losing this case is a perk as well, but the broader picture is to stop these rogue district court judges from getting their noses in situations that they have no business being involved in. Will it stop them? Probably not, but if it happens again, the state will have much quicker recourse to get the rulings tossed.

The reality is that the immigration courts are unlikely to be sympathetic to Khalil and if memory serves me he was set to be deported before this judge stepped in at the last minute. Now it would appear that ICE will have the authority to detain him again. The Appellate court did not order his detainment, nor did it order that he needs to remain free. I would assume that the administration will take the necessary steps to detain him again pending any appeal.

Now the question is whether Khalil will pursue is appeals outside of the immigration court or within the immigration court (assuming he has appeals left in the immigration court). There is some suggestion that they will appeal this to the full Third Circuit Court of appeals (14-10 GOP to Democrat nominated judges) and quite possibly it ends up at the USSC level. But that would be all theatrics and stalling tactics as the USSC is very likely (almost certainly) going to side with the current appellate court ruling here, as it is what is actually grounded i the law. The USSC has resolved many of these cases of jurisdiction and have never ruled favorably for a District Court Judge who overstepped their authority.