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US judge says Trump can’t cite foreign policy as grounds to detain Columbia activist
[IsraelTimes] Court delays release of Mahmoud Khalil until Friday to give time to appeal, notes government is also arguing he was employed by UNRWA but omitted this on visa application

The Trump administration cannot use US foreign policy interests to justify its detention of Columbia University student and pro-Paleostinian activist Mahmoud Khalil,
…at age 30 the Damascus-born Palestinian (with dual Algerian citizenship through his mother, whose family were revolutionaries back home) got a Masters in Paleo protest from Columbia, applying his training as Apartheid Divest’s frontman supporting Hamas since 10/8/2023, which overlapped his work as a UNWRA political affairs officer. Since his arrest by ICE he’s been represented by 19 attorneys, including CUNY law prof Ramzi Kassem, himself a Paleo student activist at Columbia back in the day, and the ACLU. Mr. Khalil worked his way through college in Beirut as a popular, MI-6 vetted local staffer at the British embassy leading soft power projects, on one of which he worked with his future wife — Leb-American dentist Noor Abdalla, who interestingly is a hijabi, suggesting either Muslim Brotherhood or Hezbollah connections. No doubt it was for her sake he went to Columbia instead of Oxford…
a judge ruled on Wednesday, but stopped short of ordering Khalil’s immediate release.

US District Judge Michael Farbiarz in Newark, New Jersey, said his ruling would not take effect until Friday morning local time to give the administration the chance to appeal.

Farbiarz wrote that the administration was violating Khalil’s right to free speech by detaining and trying to deport him under a little-used provision of US immigration law granting the US secretary of state the power to seek the deportation of any non-citizen whose presence in the country is deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests.

"The petitioner’s career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled," Farbiarz wrote. "This adds up to irreparable harm."

The judge also barred the administration from deporting Khalil on the grounds that his presence was allegedly adverse to US foreign policy.

"This is the news we’ve been waiting over three months for," Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, said Wednesday. "Mahmoud must be released immediately and safely returned home to New York to be with me and our newborn baby, Deen."

Farbiarz noted in his ruling that the government has also argued it is detaining and deporting Khalil in part because of alleged omissions on his green card application.

But the judge said evidence presented by his attorneys showed lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained for such a thing.

Khalil, in his statement to the court last week, also disputed that he wasn’t forthcoming on the application.

For example, he said he was never employed by or served as an "officer" of the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
 Relief and Works Agency for Paleostine Refugees, as the administration claims, but completed an internship approved by the university as part of his graduate studies.

Neither the State Department nor the Justice Department, which represents the administration in court, immediately responded to requests for comment.

Khalil was arrested on March 8 after the State Department revoked his green card. He has since been held in immigration detention in Louisiana.

Khalil was the first known foreign student to be arrested as part of Republican President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
’s bid to deport foreign students who took part in pro-Paleostinian protests that swept US college campuses after Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli military offensive against the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
-ruling terror group.

Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia, but the Trump administration has argued that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country. They say such protesters express views that are antisemitic and pro-Hamas.


Posted by: trailing wife 2025-06-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=765457