Judge orders Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from detention
Khalil was the first arrest under President Donald Trump's crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel's devastating war in Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Khalil must be expelled from the country because his continued presence could harm American foreign policy.
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Farbiarz had ruled earlier that the government can't continue to hold Khalil on those grounds, but the government argued the legal U.S. resident was instead being held based on allegations that he lied on his green card application. Khalil disputes the accusations that he wasn't forthcoming on the application.
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Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained on March 8 at his apartment building in Manhattan over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. His lawyers say the Trump administration is simply trying to crack down on free speech.
Khalil isn't accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The international affairs graduate student served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists. He wasn't among the demonstrators arrested, but his prominence in news coverage and willingness to speak publicly made him a target of critics.
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The Trump administration has argued that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country as it considers their views antisemitic.
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