Mahmoud Khalil's bid for freedom denied as federal judge sides with Trump administration
NEW YORK — A tumultuous day in Mahmoud Khalil's bid for freedom ended late Friday with a federal judge in New Jersey refusing to force the Trump administration to release the Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist from a Louisiana lockup.
Judge Michael Farbiarz denied a request from Khalil's lawyers calling for his immediate release after the government declined to appeal a ruling Farbiarz issued Wednesday that found the main reason cited for jailing and seeking to deport Khalil was unconstitutional.
Until Friday, Trump administration lawyers had primarily argued the lawful permanent resident should be detained and deported based on a determination by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that his pro-Palestinian advocacy could compromise a 'compelling' U.S. foreign policy interest, meaning U.S. support for Israel.
When Farbiarz said Khalil could no longer be detained on that basis, government lawyers were expected to appeal before his order went into effect on Friday at 9:30 a.m. That didn't happen, prompting Khalil's lawyers to call for his instant release.
But lawyers for the federal government later in the day said they did not interpret Farbiarz's opinion as ordering them to release Khalil because they had a backup reason for keeping him in lockup — alleged omissions on his immigration forms about his work experience.
'Khalil is now detained based on that other charge of removability,' Trump admin lawyers wrote.
Farbiarz said Khalil could make a bid for bail to the judge presiding over his separate immigration case in Louisiana.
The 30-year-old grad student, a legal permanent resident, has been detained in Jena, Louisiana, since March 9, a day after agents from the Department of Homeland Security took him into custody at his Columbia-owned apartment. He played a prominent role in campus protests against Israeli military activity in Gaza and the West Bank and Columbia's financial ties to Israel, acting as a mediator between students and the school administration.
In the weeks that followed, the government cited an obscure provision in a 1952 immigration law that says the office of the secretary of state can order someone deported if their beliefs or activities could unfavorably impact U.S. foreign relations, namely, the government's policy of combating antisemitism.
Khalil, a Palestinian who grew up in a Syrian refugee camp, rejects that his advocacy for civilians in war-torn Gaza and the West Bank is based on bigotry. His lawyers have pointed to public comments he made well before his arrest condemning antisemitism.
Farbiarz's Wednesday opinion and order found the basis provided by the government was so vague as to be unconstitutional and said Khalil's ongoing detention was jeopardizing his professional reputation and right to free speech, amounting to irreparable harm.
As of Friday's back and forth, the government's reason for detaining Khalil is now based on its allegations that when he applied for lawful permanent residency in 2024, he didn't disclose membership in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), that he'd worked for the British Embassy in Beirut after 2022, or that he was a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).
Though he accepted the government's position Friday, Farbiarz on Wednesday appeared skeptical that the alleged omissions warranted his detention, noting that the government 'virtually never [detains]' people on such allegations and that Khalil's jailing was, by all accounts, driven by Rubio's unconstitutional policy.
Khalil, whose U.S. citizen wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, accepted his diploma from Columbia on his behalf last month, is fighting his detention and deportation in a habeas corpus case filed in New Jersey, where he was swiftly transferred after being taken into custody.
Separately, he's faced immigration proceedings in Louisiana, where Judge Jamee Comans has sided with the government in ordering him deported. Before a hearing in that matter last month, where Khalil and other witnesses sought to convince Comans that his deportation could result in his death, he met his 1-month-old son, Deen, for the first time, who was born weeks after he was detained.
At that hearing, according to court papers, the government did not appear to bolster its allegations about Khalil's lawful residency forms.
The immigration judge dismissed the claim about the British embassy. Khalil testified he was never employed by UNRWA or a member or a leader of CUAD, and government lawyers didn't cross-examine him. The government did not mention the UNRWA or CUAD membership allegations in written closing arguments.
Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to the Daily News's queries. Khalil's lawyers could not immediately be reached following Farbiarz's order late Friday.
'The deadline has come and gone and Mahmoud Khalil must be released immediately,' the attorneys said in a statement earlier Friday. 'Anything further is an attempt to prolong his unconstitutional, arbitrary, and cruel detention.'
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