NEW YORK — A Columbia University student activist who was detained by the U.S. government over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations has the right to challenge the legality of his detention, but the case should be heard in New Jersey, rather than in New York or Louisiana, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8. From there, he was taken to an immigration detention center in New Jersey, where he spent the night. Then he was taken back to New York, put on a plane and flown to an immigration facility in Jenna, Louisiana.
“These are serious allegations and arguments that, no doubt, warrant careful review by a court of law; the fundamental constitutional principle that all persons in the United States are entitled to due process of law demands no less,” wrote U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman.
This review should happen in federal court in New Jersey, rather than in the New York court where his legal team initially brought the case, or in Louisiana, where Khalil is now detained, because New Jersey is state where Khalid was being held at the time his lawyers first went to court, Furman wrote.
The federal government said it had to move Khalid to Louisiana because of a lack of available detention center beds in the metropolitan New York region. It also cited a bedbug infestation at the closer lockup in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Attorneys for Khalil have disputed these justifications in a series of court filings since his arrest. They describe the transfer as a “retaliatory” action meant to deprive their client of access to counsel while ensuring the case is held in a jurisdiction that may be more favorable to the Republican administration’s unusual legal claim.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited as grounds for Khalil’s deportation a rarely-used statute giving him sweeping power to deport those who pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
While the White House has accused Khalil of “siding with terrorists,” they have yet to give any evidence for the claim. Still, President Trump has described Khalil’s case as the “first of many to come.”
Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student, had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists at Columbia University who took over a campus lawn last spring in protest of the war in Gaza.
Images of his maskless face at protests, along with his willingness to share his name with reporters, had made him a target among people who saw antisemitism in the demonstrations. In the weeks leading up to his arrest, Khalil repeatedly appealed to Columbia University’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, for protection, citing threats from right-wing doxing groups.