The judge said that “there is at least something” in the accusations that Trump’s administration arrested Khalil to “punish him” for his activism.
After almost three months in immigration Detention, a federal judge ruled that the president Donald TrumpThe administration of ‘administration must free a pro-palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. The graduate of the University of Columbia, who was stripped of his permanent residence and arrested By immigration and customs compliance agents in March, it has been carried out without criminal charges at the Lasalle detention Center in Jena, Louisiana.
In an order issued on Friday, Judge Michael Farbiarz determined that Khalil should be granted bond, and that there was merit to accusations that the Trump administration illegalized the activist about his political beliefs.
“There is at least something in the underlying statement that there is an effort to use the immigration position here to punish Mr. Khalil,” Farbiar said. “And, of course, that would be subjected.”
The judge added that there was a “very strong and not answered record” that indicates that Khalil was not a risk of flight, and that “would exercise the discretion that I have to order the release of the petitioner in this case.”
Khalil’s trial became an emblematic marker of Trump’s efforts to punish political discourse and aim at legal and undocumented migrants. Khalil was one of a workshop or pro-palestinian Organizers and activists Who were stripped of their legal immigration status in retaliation for their activism – Some of which were summarily deported.
He justification For efforts to deport Khalil and other activists, it was simply that Secretary of State Marco Rubio He decided that his continuous presence in the United States “would have potentially serious advertising policy concessions for the United States.”
“After more than three months, we can finally give a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud goes home with me and Deen, who should never have separated from his father,” said Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla. In a statement. He gave birth to the couple’s first son while Khalil was imprisoned.
“We know that this ruling does not begin to address the injustices that the Trump administration has mentioned to our family, and many others that the government is trying to silence to speak Israel’s ongoing genocide against Losinians,” he added. “But today we are celebrating Mahmoud returning to New York to meet with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day it was unfairly tasks to speak for Palestinian freedom.”
