US judge orders release of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil
Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has been released from federal immigration detention following a US judge's order on Friday.
The former Columbia University graduate student, who left a federal facility in Louisiana, is expected to head to New York to reunite with his US citizen wife and newborn son.
This marks a major victory for rights groups that challenged what they called the Trump administration's unlawful targeting of a pro-Palestinian activist.
Mr Khalil, a prominent figure in protests against Israel's war on Gaza, was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan on March 8.
US President Donald Trump has called the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part.
After hearing oral arguments from lawyers for Mr Khalil and for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US District Judge Michael Farbiarz in New Jersey ordered DHS to release him from custody at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana immediately.
Judge Farbiarz said the government had made no attempt to rebut evidence provided by Mr Khalil's lawyers that he was not a flight risk nor a danger to the public.
"There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner [Khalil]," Judge Farbiarz said as he ruled from the bench, adding that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional.
The Trump administration has argued that non-citizens who participate in such demonstrations should be deported, as it considers their views antisemitic.
Protesters and civil rights groups say the administration is conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel to silence dissent.
The US government filed notice on Friday evening to appeal Mr Khalil's release.
Mr Khalil said that no one should be detained for protesting Israel's war in Gaza.
He said his time in the detention facility in Louisiana had shown him "a different reality about this country that supposedly champions human rights and justice".
"No human is illegal," he said when a reporter asked what message he would like to send the public.
Mr Khalil has to surrender his passport and cannot travel internationally.
However, he will regain his green card and be issued official documents permitting limited travel within the country, including to New York and Michigan to visit family, New Jersey and Louisiana for court appearances, and Washington to lobby Congress.
The Syrian-born activist was the latest in a string of foreign pro-Palestinian students arrested in the US starting in March who have subsequently been released by a judge.
He was the first person arrested under Mr Trump's crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel's devastating war in Gaza.
The judge's decision comes after several other scholars targeted for their activism have been released from custody, including another former Palestinian student at Columbia — Mohsen Mahdawi, a Tufts University student — Rumeysa Ozturk, and a Georgetown University scholar — Badar Khan Suri.
Even though a federal judge ordered Mr Khalil to be freed, the immigration proceedings against him continue.
The Louisiana immigration judge in his case on Friday denied his asylum request, ruled he could be deported based on the government's allegations of immigration fraud, and denied a bail hearing. Judge Farbiarz's decision rendered the bail request moot.
Like others facing deportation, Mr Khalil has avenues to appeal within the immigration system.
Judge Farbiarz is also considering Mr Khalil's challenge of his deportation on constitutional grounds, and has blocked officials from deporting Mr Khalil while that challenge plays out.
On June 13, the judge declined to order Mr Khalil's release from a detention centre in Louisiana, after Trump's administration said he was being held on a separate charge that he withheld information from his application for lawful permanent residency.
Mr Khalil's lawyers denied that allegation and said people were rarely detained on such charges.
On June 16, the lawyers urged Judge Farbiarz to grant a separate request from their client to be released on bail or be transferred to immigration detention in New Jersey to be closer to his family in New York.
ABC/Reuters/AP
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