Columbia Graduate Remains in Custody as Lawyers Spar Over Order

(Bloomberg) — A Columbia University graduate who participated in pro-Palestinian protests remains in custody at an immigration facility Friday as his lawyers and the Trump administration battle over whether a federal judge actually ordered his release.

Government lawyers told US District Judge Michael Farbiarz Friday that his order earlier this week allows them to detain Mahmoud Khalil because of alleged problems with his green card application. But hours earlier, Khalil’s lawyers had demanded his immediate release, saying Farbiarz had given the government a 9:30 a.m. deadline to free him or file an appeal.

“The deadline has come and gone and Mahmoud Khalil must be released immediately,” Khalil’s lawyers said in a statement Friday before the government filed its response. “Anything further is an attempt to prolong his unconstitutional, arbitrary, and cruel detention.”

Khalil, 29, who was born in Syria, has become a symbol of the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus protests related to Israel’s war in Gaza with Hamas. A lawful permanent resident, he was arrested March 8 at off-campus Columbia housing and told by US agents that that his student visa and green card had been revoked by the State Department.

Farbiarz’s order on Wednesday had opened the door to a possible release ruling that Khalil was likely to win the legal fight over his detention and deportation, which he argued had harmed his career and stifled his free speech rights. But the dispute may come down to a footnote in Farbiarz’s ruling, which potentially narrowed the scope of his order to free speech issues related to a decision by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.  

“The court expressly noted that its holdings ‘have no impact on efforts to remove the Petitioner for reasons other than the Secretary of State’s determination,’” the Justice Department said in its filing Friday. “Detaining Khalil based on that other ground of removal is lawful.”

Lawyers for Khalil didn’t respond to a request to comment after the latest government filing. The government said that Khalil left some information about his employment history and memberships off of his green card application.

Farbiarz, however, expressed skepticism that he would rule in favor of Khalil’s detention based on the green card issue.

“The evidence is that lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained pending removal for the sort of alleged omissions in a lawful-permanent-resident application that the Petitioner is charged with here,” Farbiarz said Wednesday. “And that strongly suggests that it is the Secretary of State’s determination that drives the Petitioner’s ongoing detention —- not the other charge against him.”

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