A federal judge on Wednesday, June 11, ordered the US government to release Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, whom the Trump administration has been trying to deport owing to his presence in pro-Palestine protests.
The court held that the student would suffer irreparable harm if continually held in detention. Khalil will stay in federal detention till Friday, June 13, during which time the US government may seek an appeal against the ruling.
Khalil, a constant presence in the university’s student body’s demonstrations against the military-industrial complex holding up Israel, was one of the few students who spoke to reporters about the protests. He had caught the attention of concerned authorities as the spokesperson for the student body.
Studying international affairs at Columbia University, Khalil was arrested by federal immigration services on March 8 in the lobby of his university-provided residence. This was the first in a series of detentions made by the Trump administration in its move against noncitizen students demonstrating for Palestine. This movement has largely been perceived as anti-Semitic and pro-terrorism in nature in the United States.
Speaking to reporters, Dr Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife, a presser from Center for Constitutional Rights, said, “This is the news we’ve been waiting over three months for. Mahmoud must be released immediately and safely returned home to New York to be with me and our newborn baby, Deen.”
In his Wednesday ruling, US District Judge Michael Fabriarz said that Khalil had proven that the detainment had caused irreparable harm to “his career, his family and his free speech rights”. He also required Khalil to post a symbolic USD 1 bond prior to his release.
“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. I will not rest until Mahmoud is free, and hope that he can be with us to experience his first Father’s Day at home in New York with Deen in his arms,” said Dr Abdalla.
The ruling forms primary precedent blocking the Trump administration from using the provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked in the government’s attempt to detain and deport Khalil for his speech.
This is the first federal court to rule that noncitizens cannot be deported solely on the basis of the “foreign policy ground” of the INA, a massive setback to the Trump administration’s attempt to silence and quash the voices that protest and speak out in support of Palestinian rights.
Columbia University administration had initially called upon police reinforcements to break down the protesting encampments on the campus after activists took control of an administration building. This came amidst allegations of increasing antisemitism on the campus from the Jewish members of the student body.
Khalil was not part of the group that overran the building. Khalil’s journey in detainment saw the Department of Homeland Security transporting him 1,300 miles away to a secure detention centre in Louisiana, where he missed the birth of his newborn child.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, continues in its attempt to take away 400 million USD in federal funding from Columbia University as a punishment for its inability to control the demonstrations taking place across the campus.
(With inputs from Associated Press)
