Federal Judge Orders Release of Palestine Defender Mahmoud Khalil

A federal judge in New Jersey on Friday ordered the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident and former Columbia University graduate student arrested in March and marked for deportation amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine activists.

Politico reported that U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, announced his decision in response to a request from Khalil’s legal team to release him on bail or transfer him from Louisiana, where he is being jailed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to New Jersey so he can be closer to his wife and newborn son, whose birth he missed while in detention.

The Trump administration ignored a federal judge’s March order for Khalil’s case to be moved to New Jersey. In April, an immigration judge ruled that Khalil can be deported.

Farbiarz said Friday that he determined that Khalil poses no flight risk and called the Trump administration’s effort to continue jailing him “highly, highly unusual.”