The judge orders the Trump administration to release the militant of Columbia Mahmoud Khalil: NPR

A federal judge ordered Mahmoud Khalil to be released from the federal immigration guard, more than three months after immigration agents arrested him and detained as the first targeted student for the repression of President Trump against the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

On Friday, during a telephone hearing, judge Michael Farbiarz of the American district court of New Jersey said that the government’s attempt to continue to hold Khalil was “very, very unusual”. Farbiarz Recently governed That Khalil’s arrest and detention concerning his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University were probably unconstitutional.

“There is at least something in the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration accusation here to punish Mr. Khalil,” said Farbiarz by ordering Khalil’s release. “And of course, it would be unconstitutional.”

The decision is a monumental victory for Khalil, who is the last non -citizen student still in federal detention between several that the Trump administration is known for having stopped for their activism on the campus. Khalil is a legal permanent resident married to an American citizen. Their first child was born in April, while Khalil was detained.

“No one should fear being imprisoned for having been expressed in this country,” said Alina Das, one of Khalil’s lawyers, in a statement. “We are delighted that Mr. Khalil is finally gathered with his family while we continue to fight his case in court.”

After judge Farbiarz ordered Khalil to liberate, a lawyer from the Ministry of Justice asked the judge to delay his release for a week so that the government could appeal the decision. Farbiarz denied this request, but he agreed to place certain conditions on Khalil’s freedom. Although he said that he did not consider Khalil as a risk of theft, he forced him to make his Algerian passport while his case advances.

Khalil will also not be allowed to travel outside New York and a handful of other states.

He was detained in a detention center for immigration to Jena, Louisiana, while fighting the government’s attempt to expel him. Ice agents arrested him in his New York apartment on March 8 after Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited a status rarely used to trigger Khalil’s expulsion, saying that his activism threatened the American foreign policy objectives to fight anti -Semitism. The government has not produced evidence in support of this assertion, and it has never charged Khalil criminally.

But he tried aggressively to deport him. About a week after Khalil’s arrest, immigration officials added another accusation against him, accusing him before the immigration court of having committed fraud on his request for a Green Card 2024. An immigration judge in Louisiana spent months examining government charges against Khalil. Friday, when Judge Farbiarz approached the end of his two -hour hearing, Khalil lawyers informed him that the immigration judge in Louisiana had just ordered Khalil expelled.

In a statement after Farbiarz ordered Khalil’s release, Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Department of Internal Security, said that he was not the federal judge’s decision to take.

“An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the power to decide whether Mr. Khalil must be released or detained,” she said. “This is another example of how members outside the judicial management undermine national security,” said DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement.

She added that the actions of the administration to hold Khalil were “well in its constitutional and statutory authority”.

Judge Farbiarz told government lawyers that he expected Khalil to be released in a few hours. Khalil’s legal team said she was planning to bring him back to a plane for New York, where he will find his wife and two -month -old son, who was born when he was in detention.