Judge says US must release Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil
A US federal judge has ruled that the government must release Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student whom the Trump administration is trying to deport over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
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But Khalil, a legal US resident, will remain in custody until at least Friday morning while the government decides whether to appeal, US District Judge Michael Farbiarz said Wednesday.
He was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under US President Donald Trump's crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.
He was then flown across the country and taken to an immigration detention centre in Jena, Louisiana, thousands of miles from his lawyers and wife, a US citizen who gave birth to their first child while he was in custody.
Khalil's lawyers challenged the legality of his detention, accusing the Trump administration of trying to crack down on free speech. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he has the power to deport Khalil because his presence in the US could harm foreign policy.
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Farbiarz had ruled earlier that expelling Khalil from the US on those grounds was likely to be unconstitutional.
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