The judge said “there is at least something” to accusations that the Trump administration detained Khalil to “punish” him for his activism
After nearly three months in immigration detention, a federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration must release pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. The graduate of Columbia University — who was stripped of his permanent residence and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March — has been held without criminal charges at the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana.
In an order issued Friday, Judge Michael Farbiarz determined that Khalil must be granted bail, and that there was merit to accusations that the Trump administration unlawfully targeted the activist over his political beliefs.
“There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish Mr. Khalil,” Farbiarz said. “And of course that would be unconstitutional.”
The judge added that there was a “very strong and uncontested record” indicating that Khalil was not a flight risk, and that he would thus “exercise the discretion that I have to order the release of the petitioner in this case.”
Khalil’s arrest became an emblematic marker ofTrump’s efforts to both punish political speech and target both lawful and undocumented migrants. Khalil was one of a slew of pro-Palestinian organizers and activists who were stripped of their lawful immigration status in retaliation for their activism — some of whom were summarily deported.
The justification for the efforts to deport Khalil and the other activists was simply that Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided their continued presence in America “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
“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,” Khalil’s wife Noor Abdalla said in a statement. She gave birth to the couple’s first child while Khalil was imprisoned.
“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,” she added. “But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom.”
