MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered that the case of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian Columbia University graduate facing deportation for his advocacy, be moved from the Southern District of New York to the District of New Jersey.
In doing so, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman rejected the Trump administration’s arguments that Khalil’s habeas corpus petition either be dismissed entirely or moved to the Western District of Louisiana, where Khalil is currently being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
The 30-year-old has been there since March 10, two days after he was arrested by federal officials outside of his Manhattan apartment and told that his green card status was being revoked. President Donald Trump promised that Khalil’s arrest would be the “first of many” — his administration has labeled Khalil a Hamas sympathizer for leading protests at Columbia University last spring against Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Khalil filed a habeas corpus petition on March 9 in the Southern District of New York, claiming that his detention was a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech and retaliation for advocating against U.S. foreign policy.
“These are serious allegations and arguments that, no doubt, warrant careful review by a court of law,” Judge Furman wrote in a 33-page ruling Wednesday.
But Furman said that responsibility doesn’t fall to him. Khalil wasn’t in the district at the time his petition was filed — he was at an ICE holding center in Newark, New Jersey, before being shipped off to a Louisiana facility — meaning that the Southern District of New York is the improper venue to duke this out, the judge said.
That responsibility, Furman ruled, belongs to a federal court in New Jersey.
“A straightforward application of the district-of-confinement and immediate-custodian rules therefore dictates that Khalil’s petition should have been filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, not in this court,” the Barack Obama appointee ruled.
It was “no fault of his own,” Furman acknowledged, as Khalil’s lawyer was unaware of her client’s whereabouts when they filed the petition.
“His lawyer reasonably relied on the information made available to her by the government at the time of filing,” Furman said.
The judge had previously ordered that Khalil’s deportation be indefinitely halted until the court system decides on the legality of his arrest. On Wednesday, he rejected the government’s dismissal bid, as dropping Khalil’s case would vacate the order and allow for Khalil’s deportation “before his claims could even be adjudicated.”
Furman also denied the government’s request to transfer the case to the district where Khalil is currently detained in Louisiana, finding that Khalil would be unduly prejudiced by that move, too.
“Requiring Khalil to refile his petition in the Western District of Louisiana … would also mean litigating far from his lawyers, from his eight-months-pregnant wife, and from the location where most (if not all) of the events relevant to his petition took place,” the judge ruled.
In his order, Furman made no determination on the legality of Khalil’s arrest. He said that issue is now for a federal judge in New Jersey to decide, as is Khalil’s request for a preliminary injunction to be immediately released from ICE custody.
Khalil had sought to keep his case in New York. Still, his legal team, which includes several pro bono attorneys from nonprofit civil rights groups, praised the judge for rejecting the Trump administration’s dismissal arguments.
“The government first moved Mahmoud to Louisiana, then it tried to move his federal case there, too, hoping for better odds in court,” Ramzi Kassem, director of legal nonprofit CLEAR, said in a statement Wednesday. “The judge rightly rejected that approach and transferred the case to a court in the greater New York City area, close to Mahmoud’s home, where the case and, most importantly, Mahmoud himself, belong.”
Khalil’s personal attorney, Amy Greer of Dratel & Lewis, said that the team is “ready to fight just as hard for Mr. Khalil in the District of New Jersey.”
“He was taken by plainclothes federal agents, transferred in the middle of the night across state lines, and has been detained for over a week now, all because of his advocacy for Palestinian freedom,” Greer said in a statement. “We will not stop working until Mr. Khalil is home with his wife and his green card is reinstated.”
A Department of Justice spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Khalil’s “exceptional” case, as the judge put it, has commanded national attention as the Trump administration continues to push the boundaries of legal deportations.
Khalil’s legal team has argued that the government has no right to revoke their client’s green card. Earlier court filings say that the federal agents who arrested Khalil “looked confused” when they discovered he was a green card holder, as they had been under the impression that Khalil was in the United States on a student visa.
They’ve also blasted Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who defended Khalil’s arrest with the promise to revoke “the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” Khalil, who denies ever supporting Hamas, argues that such a vague classification of “Hamas supporters” opens the door for the Trump administration to pursue deportation against lawful residents for merely supporting the rights of Palestinians.
Last spring, Khalil was a lead negotiator on behalf of Columbia University student protestors, who tried to get the college to divest funds from Israel amid its war in the Gaza Strip by pitching a tent encampment on the school’s lawn.
Khalil was slated to graduate in May 2025 after finishing his master’s degree in public administration in December of last year.
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Categories / CIVIL RIGHTS, FIRST AMENDMENT, GOVERNMENT, IMMIGRATION, POLITICS
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