The judge says that the Government must free the protester of Columbia Mahmoud Khalil

Newark, NJ (AP)-a federal judge ruled that the Government must free Mahmoud Khalil, the former graduate student of the University of Columbia whom the Trump administration is trying to deport for its participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Khalil, a legal resident of the United States, was arrested by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university apartment, the first arrest under the repression of President Donald Trump against the students who joined the protests of the Campus against the War in Gaza.

He was then fly throughout the country and taken to an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, thousands of miles from his lawyers and wife, an American citizen who gave birth to his first child while he was in custody.

Khalil’s lawyers challenged the legality of his detention, accusing the Trump administration of trying to take energetic measures against freedom of expression. The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, says he has the power to deport Khalil because his presence in the United States could damage foreign policy.

Via News

The American district judge Michael Farbiarz had ruled before expelling Khalil from the United States for those reasons was probably unconstitutional.

In a new ruling on Wednesday, the judge said that Khalil had shown that his continuous detention is causing irreparable damage to his career, his family and his rights of freedom of expression.

Farbiar gave the government until Friday to appeal the decision. He also required Khalil to publish a $ 1 bonus before being released.

“The decision of the court is the most significant claim of Mahmoud’s rights,” said Ramzi Kassem, co -director of Clear, a legal organization and clinic at the University of New York City that represents Khalil. “But we are not out of the forest until Mahmoud is free and returns home with his wife and son.”

The lawyers and spokesmen of the Department of Justice, who handle the case, did not immediately respond to an email in search of comments.

The judge’s decision occurs after several other legal residents pointed to their activism won custody in recent weeks, including another Palestinian student in Columbia, Mohsen Mahdawi, a student at the University of Tufts, Rumeysa Ozturb and a scholar of the University of Georgetown, Badar Khan Suri.

The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, has cited a statute rarely used to justify the deportation of Khalil and others, which gives him power to deport those who represent “consequences of adverse adverse foreign policy potentially serious for the United States.”

Khalil is not accused of violating any law during protests in Columbia. However, the Government has said that non-citizens who participate in such demonstrations must be expelled from the country for expressing opinions that the Administration considers anti-Semitic and “pro-hamas”, referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Khalil, a graduate student of 30 -year -old international affairs, had served as a negotiator and spokesman for student activists at Columbia University who took care of a grass of the La Primavera Past campus to protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The University brought the police to dismantle the camp after a small group of protesters confiscated an administration building. Khalil is not accused of participating in the occupation of the building and was not among the people arrested in relation to the demonstrations.

But the images of his face without a mask in the protests, along with his willingness to share his name with the journalists, have made him an object of contempt among those who saw the protesters and their demands as anti -Semites. The White House accused Khalil of “putting on the side of terrorists”, but has not yet given any evidence of the statement.

The Trump administration has said that it is taking at least $ 400 million in federal funds of the research programs in Columbia and its medical center to punish it for not doing enough to fight against what it considers to be anti -Semitism on the campus.

Some students and Jewish faculties complained about being harassed during manifestations or ostracted due to their faith or support to Israel.