US judge orders release of pro-Palestinian activist Khalil

New York: A US judge ordered on Friday that Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil be immediately released from immigration custody, a major victory for rights groups that challenged what they called the Trump administration's unlawful targeting of a pro-Palestinian activist.

Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel's war on Gaza, was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan on March 8. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has called the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part, and Khalil became the first target of this policy.

After hearing oral arguments from lawyers for Khalil and for the Department of Homeland Security, US District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ordered DHS to release him from custody at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana. Farbiarz said the government had made no attempt to rebut evidence provided by Khalil's lawyers that he was not a flight risk nor a danger to 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)," Farbiarz said as he ruled from the bench, and punishing someone over a civil immigration matter is unconstitutional, he said.

Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, says he is being punished for his political speech in violation of the US Constitution's First Amendment. Khalil condemned antisemitism and racism in interviews with CNN and other news outlets last year.

The Syrian-born activist plans to return to New York to be with his wife Dr. Noor Abdalla and their infant son who was born during Khalil's 104 days in detention, his lawyers said.

"Today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom," Dr. Abdalla said in a statement.

The White House condemned the decision to release Khalil, saying he should be deported for "conduct detrimental to American foreign policy interests" and fraudulently obtaining a student visa.

"There is no basis for a local federal judge in New Jersey —who lacks jurisdiction — to order Khalil’s release from a detention facility in Louisiana," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement. "We expect to be vindicated on appeal, and look forward to removing Khalil from the United States."

While the federal judge ordered Khalil be freed, the immigration proceedings against him continue, as does his case before the federal judge challenging the immigration case on constitutional grounds.

Earlier this month, Farbiarz had ruled that the government was violating Khalil's free speech rights by detaining him under a little-used law granting the US secretary of state power to seek deportation of non-citizens whose presence in the country was deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests. But the judge declined on June 13 to order Khalil's release from a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, after President Donald Trump's administration said Khalil was being held on a separate charge that he withheld information from his application for lawful permanent residency.

Khalil's lawyers deny that allegation and say people are rarely detained on such charges. On June 16, they urged 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. At Friday's hearing, Farbiarz said it was "highly unusual" for the government to jail an immigrant accused of omissions in his application for US permanent residency.

Khalil, 30, became a US permanent resident last year, and his wife and newborn son are US citizens.

Trump administration lawyers wrote in a June 17 filing that Khalil's request for release should be addressed to the judge overseeing his immigration case, an administrative process over whether he can be deported, rather than to Farbiarz, who is considering whether Khalil's March 8 arrest and subsequent detention were constitutional.