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A US judge ordered the release of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate whose pro-Palestine activism led to his attempted deportation by the Trump administration.
Michael Farbiarz ordered Khalil be freed “today” while his case proceeds, with him having been in detention for more than three months in an immigration centre in rural Louisiana.
The decision on Friday is a victory for Khalil, the Syrian-born green card holder who was taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for his involvement in Columbia University’s pro-Palestine campus protests last year.
It is also a blow to the Trump administration, which has sought to deport a number of students who have voiced support for Palestine, as well as pressure universities that have become a flashpoint in US protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The administration has cut academic grants and demanded sweeping changes to campus governance at Columbia, Harvard and other universities for what it says was a failure to address harassment of Jewish students on campus.
“Today’s ruling underscores a vital First Amendment principle: the government cannot abuse immigration law to punish speech it disfavours,” said Noor Zafar, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped represent Khalil.
The justice department and homeland security department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“It is highly, highly unusual to be seeking detention of a petitioner given the factual record of today,” Farbiarz said during the hearing, according to media reports. The parties are set to discuss release terms on Friday.
The US sought to deport Khalil based on the Immigration and Nationality Act. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a letter to an immigration court had argued Khalil’s presence in the US would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences”, because his involvement in the pro-Palestine protests allegedly undermined efforts to combat anti-Semitism.
But Khalil’s lawyers said the letter “made clear Mr Khalil had not committed a crime and was being targeted solely based on his speech”.
Farbiarz earlier this month blocked the government from deporting Khalil on foreign policy grounds, arguing the former student would probably succeed on the merits of his claim and suffer irreparable harm. The judge set a nominal bond of $1, paid by Khalil.
The government in response argued Khalil should instead be detained based on alleged omissions in his application for permanent residency in the US.
The “evidence is that lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained pending removal for [these] sort of alleged omissions”, Farbiarz said earlier this month. “And that strongly suggests that it is [Rubio’s] determination that drives the petitioner’s ongoing detention — not the other charge against him.”
