NEW YORK — A federal judge said the Trump administration's effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil because of his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University likely violates the Constitution.
In a lengthy order issued Wednesday, Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote the government's primary justification for removing Khalil — that his beliefs may pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy — could open the door to vague and arbitrary enforcement.
Still, Farbiarz stopped short of ordering Khalil released from a Louisiana jail, finding his attorneys had not sufficiently responded to another charge brought by the government: that Khalil did not properly disclose certain personal details in his permanent residency application.
The judge said he would review additional evidence in the coming days as he continues to consider Khalil's request for release.
Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump's widening crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza.
He has been held for nearly 12 weeks at an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, missing the birth of his first child and recent graduation from Columbia University.
Attorneys for Khalil argue his detention is part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to suppress constitutionally protected free speech.
In letters sent from the jail, Khalil has described his arrest as "a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.''
