NEW YORK — Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student fighting deportation, asked Judge Emil Bove to step aside from an appellate panel weighing Khalil's appeal, citing Bove's previous role as a top Justice Department official involved in investigating student protesters. Khalil's attorneys also asked that the full 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, excluding Bove, review and reverse a January ruling by a three-judge panel that advanced the Trump administration's effort to detain and deport Khalil.

Khalil, a legal permanent resident born in Syria to a Palestinian family who holds Algerian citizenship, was the first person publicly known to be arrested as part of arrests of noncitizens who publicly criticized Israel and its actions in Gaza. The government justified his arrest under a statute that allows for the expulsion of noncitizens whose beliefs are deemed to pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests. The Trump administration accused Khalil of leading activities aligned with Hamas and of failing to disclose information on his green card application. The administration has not presented evidence to support the Hamas claim and has not accused him of criminal conduct. Khalil dismissed the allegations as baseless and said his arrest and detention were a direct consequence of exercising his right to free speech in advocating for a free Palestine and an end to what he called the genocide in Gaza.

The recusal request centers on Bove's tenure as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, during which he directed immigration enforcement investigations and decisions against student protesters on college campuses, including at Columbia, according to court filings. In February 2025, Bove co-authored a memorandum on the Justice Department's formation of a task force to investigate and prosecute acts of terrorism, antisemitic civil rights violations, and other federal crimes committed by Hamas supporters in the United States, including on college campuses.

During his judicial confirmation process, Bove said his Justice Department position could give rise to actual or potential conflicts and that he would recuse himself from cases in which he had been personally involved. The decision whether to recuse rests with Bove himself. He declined to comment through the 3rd Circuit. Justice Department lawyers representing the government in Khalil's appeal see no basis for recusal but defer to Bove, according to court filings.

The January ruling found that a New Jersey federal judge who had sided with Khalil did not have jurisdiction to decide the matter. Federal law requires challenges to detention and deportation to first move through the immigration court system. The three-judge panel's 2-1 decision did not resolve whether the Trump administration's effort to deport Khalil based on his campus activism and criticism of Israel was unconstitutional.

Khalil spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail and missed the birth of his son. He remains in the U.S. with his wife, an American citizen, and their young son while he fights the ruling.