NEW YORK (AP) – A United States (US) federal court hearing has been scheduled in a suit challenging the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student that the Trump Administration is trying to deport over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests at the school.
Immigration enforcement agents arrested Khalil, a permanent US resident, in New York on Saturday and he has been moved to an immigration detention centre in Louisiana.
US District Judge Jesse Furman has ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers the legal challenge brought by his lawyers, who are seeking to have Khalil brought back to New York and released under supervision. They argue the government is unlawfully retaliating against him for his speech.
A joint filing for Khalil’s lawyers and the government ahead of the hearing said the government intends to argue that the Southern District of New York is not the proper venue for the case.
Columbia University became the centre of a pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across college campuses nationwide last year, with more than 2,000 people were arrested in demonstrations.
President Donald Trump has heralded Khalil’s arrest as the first “of many to come”, vowing on social media to deport students he described as engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity”.
Khalil, who acted as a spokesperson for Columbia protesters, has not been charged with a crime.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration had moved to deport him under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to deport a non-citizen on foreign policy grounds.
Civil rights groups and Khalil’s attorneys say the government is unconstitutionally using its immigration-control powers to stop him from speaking out.
