{"id":31450,"date":"2025-06-20T20:20:33","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T20:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31450"},"modified":"2025-06-20T20:20:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T20:20:33","slug":"us-judge-orders-columbia-university-protester-mahmoud-khalil-freed-from-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=31450","title":{"rendered":"US judge orders Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from custody"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=ffbd55e4-c94e-442c-b1f1-3b53c14e3ac1&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Farbiarz ordered Khalil be freed \u201ctoday\u201d while his case proceeds, with him having been in detention for more than three months in an immigration centre in rural Louisiana.<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/82707a70-3bf1-4f91-8238-b564cfc670b2\" data-trackable=\"link\">Columbia University<\/a>\u2019s pro-Palestine campus protests last year.<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/israel-hamas-war\" data-trackable=\"link\">Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s ruling underscores a vital First Amendment principle: the government cannot abuse immigration law to punish speech it disfavours,\u201d said Noor Zafar, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped represent Khalil.<strong\/><\/p>\n<p>The justice department and homeland security department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is highly, highly unusual to be seeking detention of a petitioner given the factual record of today,\u201d Farbiarz said during the hearing, according to media reports.\u00a0The parties are set to discuss release terms on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s presence in the US would have \u201cpotentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences\u201d, because his involvement in the pro-Palestine protests allegedly undermined efforts to combat anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n<p>But Khalil\u2019s lawyers said the letter \u201cmade clear Mr Khalil had not committed a crime and was being targeted solely based on his speech\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The government in response argued Khalil should instead be detained based on alleged omissions in his application for permanent residency in the US.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cevidence is that lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained pending removal for [these] sort of alleged omissions\u201d, Farbiarz said earlier this month. \u201cAnd that strongly suggests that it is [Rubio\u2019s] determination that drives the petitioner\u2019s ongoing detention \u2014 not the other charge against him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ffbd55e4-c94e-442c-b1f1-3b53c14e3ac1\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}