A federal court has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist and green card holder detained over his involvement in the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University.
Michael Farbiarz, of the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, ruled that Mahmoud Khalil, who the administration alleges has ties to terrorism, cannot be deported on foreign policy grounds.
In a 14-page order, Farbiarz wrote that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to justify Khalil’s removal by citing “a compelling foreign-policy interest” but found that the administration’s legal reasoning may not withstand constitutional scrutiny.
“Khalil’s career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled, and this adds up to irreparable harm,” Farbiarz wrote.
The judge did not block Khalil’s detention or removal on other grounds, such as alleged omissions on his green card application which he completed after marrying a US citizen.
Federal agents arrested Khalil, originally from Syria, on March 8 after he acted as a spokesperson for pro-Palestine campus groups at Columbia during the wave of protests last year.
Some of these groups have subsequently been accused of supporting terrorism and celebrating the October 7, 2023 attacks but there is no suggestion that Khalil did so.
However, the administration had claimed it found links to terrorist activity on his personal devices and in his social media history, though it did not publicly release evidence to substantiate that allegation.
Khalil is being held at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana after being transferred there from New Jersey after his arrest. His case is currently before an immigration tribunal in the state – one of the most conservative in the country – but, as a green card holder, he also filed a habeas corpus suit in the New Jersey federal court system.
The ruling does not go into effect until 9.30 am (EST) this morning, to give the Trump administration time to respond and file an appeal.
Khalil’s detention was one of the first high-profile cases in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, much of which has been based on claims around national security and foreign policy.
Tensions are high with regards to the topic, with Democratic representatives accusing the White House of acting illegally and a spate of protests against immigration enforcement.
Just this week, Trump federalised the California National Guard and deployed US Marines to Los Angeles, against the wishes of state governor Gavin Newsom, in an attempt to quell violent unrest around immigration raids in the city.
