Mahmoud Khalil to be released from custody, orders federal judge
A federal judge says he'll order Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil released from immigration detention.
Judge Michael Farbiarz made the ruling from the bench in federal court in New Jersey on Friday. Lawyers for the Columbia graduate had asked a federal judge to immediately release him on bail from a Louisiana jail, or else transfer him to New Jersey, where he can be closer to his wife and newborn son.
Khalil was the first arrest under U.S. President Donald Trump's crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the conflict 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.
The same judge had ruled earlier that the government can continue to detain the legal U.S. resident 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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The judge previously determined that Khalil couldn't continue being held based on the U.S. secretary of state's determination that he could harm American foreign policy.
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.
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Within a day, he was flown across the country and taken to an immigration detention centre in Jena, thousands of miles from his lawyers and wife, a U.S. citizen who was due to give birth soon.
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 government, however, has said noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and 'pro-Hamas,' referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
His lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to crack down on free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution.
The Trump administration has argued that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country as it considers their views antisemitic.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a rarely used statute to justify Khalil's deportation, which gives him power to deport those who pose 'potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.'
At a hearing in April, Khalil's lawyer Van Der Hout told the judge that the government's submissions to the court prove the attempt to deport his client 'has nothing to do with foreign policy' and said the government is trying to deport him for activity that is protected by the First Amendment.
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They said an immigration judge could determine if Khalil is subject to deportation and then conduct a bail hearing afterward if it is found that he is not.
— With files from The Associated Press' Sarah Cline and Kate Brumback
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