Mahmoud Khalil, pro-Palestinian activist, released after 104 days

Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist detained by the Trump administration over his ties to student protests, has been released from immigration detention after 104 days.
The former Columbia University student became a symbol of the president's clampdown on campus demonstrations when he was arrested and threatened with deportation.
On Friday a federal judge ruled Khalil, a green card holder married to an American, must be released on bail.
He walked free from a detention centre in Louisiana and said he wanted to hug his wife and newborn son.
'Justice prevailed, but it's very long overdue,' Khalil said while wearing a keffiyeh, a black and white headscarf which has become a symbol of solidarity with Palestine. 'This shouldn't have taken three months.'
He is expected to travel to New York to reunite with his family.
Khalil was detained outside his apartment in New York in March over his ties to the student protests and encampments at Columbia that later spread to colleges across the nation.
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, claimed that he should be deported and that his participation in 'antisemitic protests' posed a national security threat.
Khalil and his supporters maintain he is innocent and that he took part in legitimate protests. He missed the birth of his son while detained.
District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be 'highly, highly unusual' for the government to continue detaining a legal US resident who was not a flight risk and who had not been accused of violence.
'Petitioner is not a flight risk, and the evidence presented is that he is not a danger to the community,' he said. 'Period, full stop.'
After leaving detention Khalil condemned the White House's immigration policies.
'The Trump administration are doing their best to dehumanise everyone here,' he said of the immigrants still behind bars.
'Whether you are a US citizen, an immigrant or just a person on this land, doesn't mean that you are less of a human.'
Under the terms of his release Khalil had to surrender his passport and cannot travel internationally.
He can however travel within the country including to New York and Michigan to visit family, New Jersey and Louisiana for court appearances and Washington to lobby Congress.

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