Judge denies release request for pro-Palestinian activist Khalil

FILE PHOTO: Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, in New York City, U.S., June 1, 2024. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo
A U.S. judge on Friday denied pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil's request to be released from detention after President Donald Trump's administration said the Columbia University student was being held on an immigration fraud charge.
Newark, New Jersey-based U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said Khalil's lawyers had not successfully argued why it was unlawful for the government to hold him on the charge, which he has denied.
Farbiarz suggested Khalil file an application for bail with the immigration judge in his case.
The ruling marked the latest turn in Khalil's fight to be released from a Louisiana detention center after his March arrest for involvement in the pro-Palestinian protest movement, which Trump has called antisemitic.
As lawyers for the Syrian-born activist sought his release, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, another immigrant targeted by the Trump administration, pleaded not guilty to migrant smuggling charges after his wrongful deportation.
Marc Van Der Hout, a lawyer for Khalil, said the government practically never detained people for immigration fraud and he was being punished for opposing Israel's U.S.-backed war in Gaza following Hamas' October 2023 attack.
"Detaining someone on a charge like this is highly unusual and frankly outrageous," said Van Der Hout. "There continues to be no constitutional basis for his detention."
On Wednesday, Farbiarz ruled the government was violating Khalil's right to free speech by detaining him under a little-used law granting the U.S. secretary of state power to seek deportation of non-citizens whose presence in the country was deemed adverse to U.S. foreign policy interests.
The U.S. government on Friday responded that it was also holding Khalil on a charge he fraudulently withheld information from his application for a green card.
Khalil's lawyers said allegations he misrepresented himself in his application are spurious.
Farbiarz has written that lawful permanent residents are rarely detained on the basis of immigration fraud.
Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel's war on Gaza, was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan on March 8. He has since been held in immigration detention in Louisiana.
Khalil's U.S. citizen wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, gave birth to the couple's first child while Khalil was detained in April. REUTERS
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