Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and prominent pro-Palestinian agitator at Columbia University, will remain in federal custody after a Trump administration legal maneuver exposed major gaps in his immigration record—a move that swiftly overturned a prior court order calling for his release.

Khalil, an Algerian national who became the face of radical campus protests last spring, was initially set to walk free Friday morning following a judge’s ruling that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s foreign policy threat designation wasn’t enough to keep him locked up.

But the Trump administration wasn’t done.

In a calculated shift in strategy, federal attorneys pointed out that Khalil had omitted critical details from his employment history on his green card application—a deportable offense. That was all District Judge Michael Farbiarz needed to hear to reverse course and allow ICE to continue detaining Khalil.

“Khalil is now detained based on that other charge of removability,” government lawyers told the court. “Detaining Khalil based on that other ground of removal is lawful.”

That new legal argument was filed just hours before Khalil was scheduled to be released, a move that his lawyers immediately decried—but one that kept him behind bars where he’s been since March 8, when he became the first known foreign national arrested under President Donald Trump’s renewed crackdown on non-citizen agitators stirring unrest on college campuses.

Khalil's lawyers raced to file an emergency motion Friday morning demanding clarification from the judge, but by 1:30 p.m., the Trump administration had already dropped the hammer—and the judge stood by it.

Khalil’s case has drawn national attention not because of any sympathy from the public, but because of how deeply embedded he was in the far-left campus protest machine. At Columbia, he helped spearhead the occupation of school grounds in support of anti-Israel activism, defying law enforcement and university orders while foreign students and visa holders led the charge.

Despite the sob stories in left-leaning media about Khalil’s personal hardships—including missing the birth of his first child—the facts remain clear: Khalil is in the U.S. as a guest, and he lied on his immigration paperwork. That’s grounds for removal—and the Trump administration is doing what the Biden team refused to do: enforce the law.

While other foreign-born protesters were quietly released under the previous administration, President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is sending a message: visa fraud and foreign interference in U.S. political unrest will not be tolerated.

Advocacy groups may cry “selective enforcement,” but Americans watching the collapse of discipline and rule of law on college campuses see it differently. Khalil’s detention is not just justified—it’s necessary.

The broader implications are clear: Khalil’s case could be the model for a summer of stepped-up enforcement against foreign nationals involved in America’s domestic chaos. And with President Trump’s crackdown on radicalism in full swing, the days of campus anarchy with no consequences appear to be numbered.