Iena, LA. (AP) – Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was released from federal immigration detention Friday and was released 104 days later by a judge’s ruling after becoming a symbol of President Donald Trump’s clampdown in campus protests.
The former Columbia University graduate student left the federal facility in Louisiana on Friday. He is expected to head to New York and be reunited with his young son, a U.S. citizen wife born while Halil was in custody.
“Justice won, but it was postponed for a very long time,” he said outside a remote facility in Louisiana. “This should have taken three months.”
The Trump administration is trying to deport Halil about his role in the pro-Palestinian protests. He was taken into custody in his Manhattan apartment on March 8th.
Halil was released after US District Judge Michael Fabiartz said it was “very, very rare” for the government to continue detaining legal US residents who were not accused of violence, as they were unlikely to flee.
“The petitioner is not a flight risk and the evidence presented is that he is not a risk to the community,” he said. “Full stop for the period.”
A New Jersey judge said during the one-hour hearing over the phone that the government “evidently fails to meet” the standards for detention.
The government filed a notice on Friday evening that Khalil’s release was attractive.
Halil was the first person to be arrested under Trump crackdown on students who participated in campus protests against Israel’s devastating war in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Halil must be expelled from the country as his ongoing presence could harm American foreign policy.
The Trump administration argued that non-citizens who participate in such demonstrations should be deported considering the views of anti-Semitics. Protesters and civil rights groups say the administration is blending anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel to silence its opposition.
Farbeers has determined that the government cannot deport Halil based on the assertion that his presence could undermine foreign policy. However, the judge gave the administration room to continue pursuing potential deportation based on allegations that he lied to the Khalil dispute.
Graduate students in international affairs have not been accused of breaking the law during the protests in Colombia. He served as a negotiator and spokesman for student activists and was not one of the protesters who were arrested, but his prominence in his news coverage and willingness to speak made him a critical target.
The judge agreed with Khalil’s attorney on Friday, preventing protesters from exercising his rights to free speech and legitimate processes despite no obvious reasons for his continued detention. The judge noted that Halil was clearly a public figure.
Halil said Friday that no one should be detained to protest Israeli war in Gaza. He said his time detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, showed “a different reality about this country defending human rights and justice.”
“Man is not illegal,” he said when reporters asked what message they wanted to send the public. “The message is: Justice wins. What this administration is trying to portray is to portray immigrants as criminals.”
Although Halil had to surrender his passport and was unable to travel internationally, he was given official documents allowing limited travel within the country, including New York and Michigan.
In a statement after the judge’s ruling, Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdallah, said that after her husband’s three months in detention, she could finally “sigh in relief.”
“This ruling knows that the Trump administration has not begun to deal with the injustice that has brought to our families and many others,” she said. “But today we are back in New York and celebrating Mahmoud to reunite with our small family.”
The judge’s decision comes after several other scholars targeting their behaviorism have been released from detention. This includes another former Palestinian student from Mohsen Mahdawi of Colombia. Rumeysa Ozturk, student at Tufts University; Badar Khan Suri, scholar at Georgetown University;
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Marcelo reported from New York. Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.
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