A federal judge has ruled that the federal government must release Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student whom the Trump administration is trying to deport over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the AP reports. But Khalil, a legal US resident, will remain in custody until at least Friday morning while the government decides whether to appeal, US District Judge Michael Farbiarz said Wednesday. He was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Trump's move against students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.
Khalil was then flown across the country and taken to an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, thousands of miles from his attorneys and wife, a US citizen who gave birth to their first child while he was in custody. Khalil's lawyers challenged the legality of his detention, accusing the Trump administration of trying to crack down on free speech. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he has the power to deport Khalil because his presence in the US could harm foreign policy. Farbiarz had ruled earlier that expelling Khalil from the US on those grounds was likely unconstitutional.
In his ruling Wednesday, the judge said Khalil had shown that his continued detention is causing irreparable harm to his career, his family, and his free speech rights. Farbiarz gave the government until Friday to appeal the decision and required Khalil to post a $1 bond before he is freed. "The court's decision is the most significant vindication yet of Mahmoud's rights," said Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR, a legal nonprofit and clinic at the City University of New York that represents Khalil. "But we aren't out of the woods until Mahmoud is free and back home with his wife and child."
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