Judge rules Trump administration cannot continue to detain Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil
A New Jersey federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from deporting or continuing to detain Columbia University pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.
In his ruling issued on Wednesday, Judge Michael Farbiarz is barring the administration from seeking to remove Khalil based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio's determination that his continued presence in the country would pose a risk to foreign policy.
The judge is staying his injunction until 9:30 a.m. Friday. The timing gives the Trump administration about 40 hours to appeal the decision before Khalil must be released, his attorneys said.
The preliminary injunction will go into effect once Khalil posts a "nominal bond in the amount of $1," the judge's order said.
Khalil, a green card holder who is married to an American citizen, has been held in a Louisiana detention facility since ICE agents arrested him in the lobby of his apartment building in New York City on March 8.
In April, an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled that Khalil is deportable based on Rubio's assertion that his continued presence and actions in the country pose an "adverse foreign policy consequence." The judge has yet to rule on a second set of charges which stem from the Department of Homeland Security's allegations that Khalil withheld information on his green card application.
But Farbiarz stated in his ruling that lawful permanent residents, like Khalil, who are accused of making misrepresentations on their applications are "virtually never detained pending removal."
Khalil's attorneys called the judge's decision to grant their motion for the preliminary injunction a "big win."
"We are relieved that the court documented what was obvious to the world, which is that the government's vindictive and unconstitutional arrest, detention and attempted deportation of Mahmoud for his Palestinian activism is causing him and his family agonizing personal and professional harm," Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement.
Khalil's wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla -- who gave birth to their first child while Khalil has been detained -- said she hopes he can experience his first Father's Day at home with his family.
"Mahmoud must be released immediately and safely returned home to New York to be with me and our newborn baby, Deen," Abdalla said in a statement Wednesday. "True justice would mean Mahmoud was never taken away from us in the first place, that no Palestinian father, from New York to Gaza, would have to endure the painful separation of prison walls like Mahmoud has."
Officials from President Donald Trump's administration have said Khalil was detained for his purported support of Hamas -- a claim his legal team has rejected.
In a memo filed in the case, Rubio wrote that Khalil should be deported because of his alleged role in "antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States."
During a hearing last month in Louisiana, Khalil testified in support of his case for asylum and for withholding of removal to either Algeria or Syria, where he grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp.
He repeatedly stated that the Trump administration's accusations that he's a Hamas supporter makes him a target for Israel in any country he could be deported to. In Syria, he also said remnants of the Assad regime as well as military factions within the country could target him or that he could be used as a "bargaining chip" in negotiations between the new Syrian government and other nations including the U.S.
Ahead of the hearing, Khalil's attorney submitted over 600 pages of documents, declarations and expert analyses supporting their claim that he is not antisemitic and that he could face torture and death if he were to be deported.
