An American federal court rejected a Trump administration request to reject the court suit brought by Palestinian human rights activist Mahmoud Khalil against his deportation and detention. Khalil is a graduate student at Columbia University and legal permanent resident who was detained by the government on March 8 following his involvement in campus demonstrations on behalf of Gaza last year.
On Wednesday, Judge Jesse Furman directed Khalil’s habeas corpus petition, which asks for a judicial review of his detention, to move forward despite the administration’s motion to dismiss. The judge noted that Khalil’s allegations of violations of his free speech and due process rights under the U.S. Constitution are serious and deserving of careful scrutiny.
“These are grave charges and assertions worthy of close examination by a court of law,” Furman said, citing the fundamental assumption that all individuals in the U.S. are entitled to due process.
However, the judge ruled that his court in New York lacks jurisdiction over the case and ordered that it be remitted to New Jersey, where Khalil was jailed when he lodged his challenge. The government, on its part, sought to reschedule the case to Louisiana, a Republican-leaning state where Khalil is in fact detained in an immigration enforcement center.
Furman affirmed his previous ruling barring the deportation of Khalil by the state pending appeal but did not address the activist’s request for bail, instead leaving that to New Jersey court. The judge ordered immediate transfer of the petition, although no date has been scheduled for when New Jersey is to hear the case.
The Trump administration is pursuing the deportation of Khalil using a rarely applied provision of immigration law that would allow the Secretary of State to deport any non-citizen deemed to pose “adverse foreign policy consequences.” Remarkably, the U.S. government has not even charged Khalil with a crime but has merely accused him of seeking out activities linked with Hamas.
Supporters contend that Khalil was simply taking part in peaceful protests against Columbia University’s ties to the Israeli military, one part of a wider surge of campus demonstrations last year. His arrest has sparked fears about the administration’s policy toward free speech and its effect on Palestinian rights activism in America.
Khalil, whose pregnant wife is a U.S. citizen and eight months pregnant, was detained in the dead of night by immigration agents and shuttled from center to center without warning his family or lawyers. The treatment has been likened to forced disappearances that are widespread in authoritarian governments.
Hannah Flamm, a senior policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), also criticized the action of the administration, stating, “The Trump administration is trying to send a message with the despicable and illegal vanishing of Mr. Khalil.” She continued to observe that this move indicates a perilous trend of leveraging immigration enforcement to intimidate communities and tear families apart, a gross violation of American free speech rights.
In a statement released while in detention, Khalil referred to himself as a political prisoner and stated, “My arrest was a direct result of my exercise of free speech as I was calling for a free Palestine and an end to the Gaza genocide.”
