Judge orders release of Mahmoud Khalil, ex-Columbia student held over protests

A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention, criticizing the US government for holding him without clear justification for months amid an effort to deport him for his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests.In a strongly worded ruling from the bench, US District Judge Michael Farbiarz said the government had "clearly not met" the legal standards for detention and found no reason to believe Khalil posed a danger or flight risk.advertisement'He is not a danger to the community. Period, full stop,' Farbiarz said.
'It would be highly, highly unusual for the government to continue to detain a legal US resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn't been accused of any violence,' the judge added.Khalil had been held at an immigration facility in rural Louisiana since early March as the Trump administration pursued deportation proceedings against him. Farbiarz ordered that Khalil be released immediately following the hearing.The judge's decision comes after several other scholars targeted for their activism have been released from custody, including another former Palestinian student at Columbia, Mohsen Mahdawi; a Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk; and a Georgetown University scholar, Badar Khan Suri.Khalil was the first arrest under President Donald Trump 's crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel's devastating war in Gaza. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Khalil must be expelled from the country because his continued presence could harm American foreign policy.advertisementKhalil's wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said following the ruling that she can finally 'breathe a sigh of relief' after her husband was detained for three months.'We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others,' she said in a statement provided by Khalil's lawyers. 'But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family.'Khalil was detained on March 8 at his apartment building in Manhattan over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.With inputs from Associated Press

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