A Philadelphia court is deciding if a pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate who fought for and won his freedom after spending three months in immigration facilities will remain free or return to custody.

On Tuesday, Mahmoud Khalil was in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, after the Trump administration challenged a lower court's ruling to have him released from immigration detention.

In the hearing, the court made no ruling and instead said that it will need to deliberate on the case, a process that could take days or weeks.

The case involved the Trump administration's appeal of rulings over whether Khalil should be removed from the United States and his bail ruling.

Following the hearing, NBC Philadelphia's Brenna Weick was at the scene as Khalil spoke outside the courthouse to say he's confident in his case and is hopeful that he will remain a free man following the court's deliberation.

"They know they don't have a case against me," Khalil said. "We will keep fighting the legal fight until the end and we are fairly confident that we will prevail at the end."

Asked to comment on the long road he's faced since his arrest, Khalil noted that his first child was born while he was held in immigration detention. It was something that Khalil called "difficult."

"It was designed to be cruel," he said. "They want to break me."

Khalil says the court system has supported him repeatedly along the way and he's confident the courts will vindicate him in the end.

"The government tried to put me in prison and disappear me and the legal system vindicated me," he said. "However, this administration is trying everything to do to actually weaken this system."

He called for Americans to stand up in support of the legal system in this country.

Khalil, a Syrian-born legal resident and green card holder, was arrested March 8, 2025, at a housing complex at Columbia University in New York City after returning from an Iftar meal during Ramadan.

In court documents, Department of Homeland Security attorneys state that the immigration officers "had exigent circumstances to conduct the warrantless arrest" and that Khalil said he would not cooperate and intended to leave the scene.

Federal immigration authorities said they "believed there was a flight risk and arrest was necessary," according to the court documents.

Khalil has a green card, is married to a U.S. citizen and has no criminal record.

He has not been charged with any crime.

He was released from a detention center in Louisiana back in June. Trump administration officials appealed the ruling less than 10 minutes later.

In a statement on the case, the ACLU officials said that Khalil was detained on the basis of "foreign policy ground," which they claimed was an "obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that the government claims allows it to detain and deport noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents such as Mr. Khalil."