Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian Columbia graduate scholar the Trump administration is attempting to deport, appeared for an immigration continuing in Louisiana Friday as his legal professionals problem his detention as merciless and illegal.
The looks was Khalil’s first earlier than a choose since Homeland Safety brokers took him into custody at his university-owned residence on March 8 — regardless of his standing as a inexperienced card holder who hasn’t been accused of breaking any legal guidelines. He was transported to Jena, La., the next day.
An legal professional representing Khalil within the South, Marc Van Der Hout, mentioned he wanted extra time to get acquainted along with his new consumer and the case, in line with the Related Press. A choose then set one other listening to for April 8.
Noor Abdalla through ACLU
Video footage exhibits the second Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil is taken into custody in entrance of his eight-months pregnant spouse. (Noor Abdalla through ACLU)
Separate from his immigration case, the scholar’s legal professionals in New York try to get him freed so he can battle his case exterior of detention and be current for the delivery of his first youngster. Khalil’s spouse is eight months pregnant.
On Wednesday, a Manhattan federal choose transferred a habeas corpus petition filed by Khalil’s legal professionals to a federal courtroom in Newark, N.J. Rejecting the federal government’s effort to dismiss the petition or transfer it to Louisiana, Decide Jesse Furman mentioned it was the right plan of action provided that Khalil was detained in Elizabeth, N.J., when his legal professionals filed it. The choose additionally reaffirmed a earlier ruling ordering the federal government to not take away Khalil from the nation as his authorized issues play out.
The ruling critically meant that Khalil’s legal professionals’ challenges to courtroom rulings of their battle to get him out of detention wouldn’t be focused to the Fifth Circuit Court docket of Appeals, thought-about among the many most conservative within the nation. He’s anticipated to stay detained in Louisiana till a choose orders in any other case.
Protestors collect in Foley Sq. to protest the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil on Monday, March 10, 2025, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams / New York Day by day Information)
Khalil, the grandson of Palestinians, who grew up in Syria, performed a distinguished function in campus protests final yr towards Israel’s warfare towards Hamas in Gaza and Columbia College’s funding ties to Israel.
The president and his senior cupboard members have framed Khalil’s advocacy for Palestinian civilians within the besieged Gaza area as antisemitic and supportive of Hamas, which the U.S. and different Western nations have designated a terrorist group. Khalil refuted these characterizations earlier than and after his detention.
Quite than accusing Khalil of against the law, the Trump administration has invoked a hardly ever cited provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act that offers the secretary of state the ability to order noncitizens deported if they’re deemed to pose a risk to U.S. overseas coverage pursuits. The administration says he’s the primary of many college students it plans to focus on.
Khalil’s arrest for political causes has provoked widespread protests and concern over the way forward for the First Modification proper to free speech below Trump.
In an announcement earlier this week, Khalil mentioned he had been sleeping in chilly amenities with out a blanket since his arrest.
“The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent,” Khalil mentioned. “Visa holders, green card carriers and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs.
“At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.”
