DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
A federal judge in the United States has ordered the release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who has been detained since March by immigration authorities over his involvement in Palestinian rights protests at Columbia University.
The decision on Friday came from a federal court in New Jersey, where Khalil’s lawyers are challenging his detention. It is separate from the legal push against his deportation that will continue to take place in immigration courts.
It is unclear whether Khalil – who is a legal permanent resident – will be immediately released. He was the first known activist to be detained and have his legal immigration status revoked by the administration of President Donald Trump over involvement in student protests.
His case gained national attention, especially after the authorities denied him the chance to witness the birth of his first born son in April.
Khalil was not charged of any crime. Instead, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has used a rarely used provision of an immigration law that allows him to order the removal of noncitizens if they are deemed to have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the US.
Advocates have argued that the crackdown violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects freedom of speech.
The Trump administration has also been criticised for sending immigration authorities – sometimes masked and in plainclothes – to detain the student instead of allowing them to remain free while they challenge their deportation.
Several other students that the Trump administration is looking to deport have been ordered released by federal courts, including Turkish Tufts University scholar Rumeysa Ozturk and Columbia’s Mohsen Mahdawi.
Ozturk was detained over co-authoring an op-ed calling on her school to abide by the student government’s call for divesting from companies involved in Israeli abuses against Palestinians.
More to come…
