US judge orders release of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil

WASHINGTON

A US federal judge on Friday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who has been in government custody since March.

Judge Michael E. Farbiarz of the Federal District Court in Newark, New Jersey ruled that the government cannot deport Khalil and must release him, a ruling celebrated by Khalil's wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla and legal team.

“After more than three months we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father,” Abdalla said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of several groups that represented the Columbia graduate in court.

"We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians. But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family," she added.

Noor Zafar, a senior staff attorney with ACLU, said the Trump administration has been seeking to punish Khalil for constitutionally-protected political speech "at every turn" throughout the legal process.

"But today’s ruling underscores a vital First Amendment principle: The government cannot abuse immigration law to punish speech it disfavors," she said.

Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student, was arrested on March 8 in New York City and transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in the southern state of Louisiana, thousands of kilometers away.

Though he has not been accused of a crime, the Trump administration has argued that if Khalil is not deported, he could undermine foreign policy goals regarding fighting antisemitism.

Farbiarz said the court finds that Khalil does not pose a danger to the community, nor does he present a flight risk, “period, full stop."

Stressing that it’s “highly, highly unusual” that the government is still seeking Khalil’s detention, the judge said: "Together, they suggest that there is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner – and, of course, that would be unconstitutional."

While held in detention, Khalil was unable to witness the birth of his first child.

*Michael Hernandez contributed to this story