Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the courthouse in lower Manhattan, holding signs reading ‘Release Mahmoud Khalil’ and chanting ‘Down, down with deportation, up, up with liberation’ [GETTY]
A US judge on Wednesday extended his order blocking federal authorities from deporting a detained Columbia University student, in a case that has become a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s pledge to deport some pro-Palestinian college activists.
US District Judge Jesse Furman had temporarily blocked Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation earlier this week, and extended the prohibition on Wednesday in a written order following a hearing in Manhattan federal court to allow himself more time to consider whether the arrest was unconstitutional.
Even before Furman blocked it, there was no indication Khalil’s deportation was imminent. Khalil has the right to plead his case to avoid deportation before a separate judge in immigration court, a potentially lengthy process.
Khalil’s lawyers say his arrest on Saturday by Department of Homeland Security agents outside his university residence in Manhattan was in retaliation for his outspoken advocacy against Israel’s military assault on Gaza and thus violated Khalil’s right to free speech under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the courthouse in lower Manhattan, holding signs reading “Release Mahmoud Khalil” and chanting “Down, down with deportation, up, up with liberation”.
“Mr. Khalil was identified, targeted, detained and is being processed for deportation on account of his advocacy for Palestinian rights,” Khalil’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem said in court.
Brandon Waterman, a lawyer for the government, said Furman should not have jurisdiction to decide the legality of Khalil’s arrest because he was in immigration detention in New Jersey when his lawyers first filed their petition seeking his release on Sunday morning.
Waterman said the case should be heard either there or in Louisiana, where Khalil is currently being held.
The case could ultimately test where immigration courts draw the line between protected free speech and alleged support for groups the United States calls terrorists.
US President Donald Trump has said on social media that Khalil supported Hamas, but his administration has not charged him with a crime and has not provided evidence to show Khalil’s alleged support for the Palestinian group.
Demonstrators on the streets of Manhattan, rights groups, and Democratic lawmakers have called Khalil’s arrest an assault on freedom of speech and demanded his release.
Furman also ordered that Khalil be allowed two hour-long private phone calls with his lawyers, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday, after Kassem said Khalil’s sole phone call with a member of his legal team from detention in Louisiana so far was cut off prematurely and was on a line recorded and monitored by the government.
‘Refusing to stay silent’
Khalil, who is of Palestinian origin, came to the US on a student visa in 2022 and became a permanent resident last year. He was a prominent member of Columbia’s protest movement against Israel’s military assault on Gaza.
The Trump administration says pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, including Columbia, have included support for Hamas and antisemitic harassment of Jewish students. Student protest organisers say criticism of Israel is being wrongly conflated with antisemitism.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday told reporters that Secretary of State Marco Rubio could revoke Khalil’s green card if he determined his presence in the United States was contrary to the country’s foreign policy interests.
Outside the courthouse on Wednesday, Khalil’s lawyer Kassem told reporters that Leavitt’s comment appeared to reference a rarely-used legal provision allowing an immigrant to be deported if the Secretary of State finds their presence in the US could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
Kassem said that provision was not meant to be used to “silence dissent.”
After the hearing, one of Khalil’s lawyers, Shezza Abboushi Dallal, read a statement from Khalil’s wife, a US citizen who is eight months pregnant and did not wish to be named.
“So many who know and love Mahmoud have come together, refusing to stay silent,” the statement read.
(Reuters)
