Judge to govern Friday on a possible release from the detained activist of Columbia

By Sara Cline, Associated Press

Jena, Louisiana (AP) – An immigration judge in Louisiana said that she would later decide this week if the government can continue to hold Mahmoud Khalil, the militant of the University of Columbia faced with expulsion for her role in pro -Palestinian demonstrations.

During an immigration hearing Tuesday in Louisiana, judge Jamee Comans gave the federal government until Wednesday to give his evidence collected against Khalil, a 30 -year -old legal resident.

If the evidence against Khalil does not support his dismissal, Comans said: “Then I will end the case on Friday.”

On March 8, Khalil became the first of an increasing number of students born abroad intended for the expulsion of the Trump administration for participating in campus demonstrations against Israel and the war in Gaza.

He was arrested by the federal immigration authorities inside the hall of his Manhattan apartment, then stole all night in an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, thousands of kilometers from his lawyers and marries, an American citizen who is due to give birth this month.

While the Khalil immigration case takes place in Louisiana, his lawyers also challenged his detention and his potential deportation before a federal judge in New Jersey. This judge rejected last week the efforts of the Trump administration to transfer the jurisdiction of the legal battle to Louisiana, but has not yet ruled on the petition for his release.

The federal government has sought to expel Khalil and other students under a rarely used law which authorizes the Secretary of State to expel non-citizens who pose “early consequences of potentially serious foreign policy for the United States”.

They said, without providing evidence, that Khalil’s leading role in anti-Israeli demonstrations was supporting Hamas, the militant group who controlled Gaza and attacked Israel in October 2023.

Khalil was a negotiator for student demonstrators in Columbia, but was not among those arrested and has not been accused of any crime. He has repeatedly denied the allegations of anti -Semitism.

In a letter dictated from prison last month, Khalil said that his detention was a “direct consequence of the exercise of my right to freedom of expression while I pleaded for a free Palestine and the end of the genocide in Gaza”.

Originally published: April 8, 2025 at 12:46 pm PDT