A U.S. judge has rejected a push by the Trump administration to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Mahmoud Khalil, a detained Columbia University student, who is fighting his arrest by immigration agents. The judge, however, transferred the case from New York to New Jersey.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, based in Manhattan, ruled that his court lacked jurisdiction. He ordered the case moved to a federal court in New Jersey, where Khalil was held when his legal team first filed the lawsuit. The judge did not decide whether Khalil should be released on bail.
Khalil's lawyers and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately comment.
Khalil, 30, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on March 8 outside his residence at Columbia University in Manhattan. His legal team argues that the arrest was in retaliation for his pro-Palestinian activism, violating his free speech rights under the First Amendment.
The case has become a major controversy amid President Donald Trump's calls to deport non-citizens involved in pro-Palestinian protests. These protests erupted on campuses like Columbia after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.
Trump officials claim the protests supported Hamas and included antisemitic acts against Jewish students. However, student protest leaders argue that their criticism of Israel is being wrongly labeled as antisemitic.
Khalil, who is of Palestinian heritage, entered the U.S. on a student visa in 2022. He later married an American citizen in 2023 and received his green card last year. He is one of the key figures in Columbia's pro-Palestinian movement while studying for his master's degree in public administration. He is expected to graduate this May.
The Trump administration is seeking Khalil's deportation using a rare clause from the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act. The law permits the removal of a permanent resident if the Secretary of State believes their presence could harm U.S. foreign policy.
On March 16, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that involvement in "pro-Hamas events" contradicts U.S. foreign policy interests. Khalil's lawyers deny any links between him and Hamas. They say Khalil acted as a negotiator during campus protests.
Khalil's legal team says the administration is targeting him and other non-citizens for expressing protected views. They are asking for his immediate release from detention.
Khalil's wife, Noor Abdalla, is eight months pregnant and unable to travel to Louisiana, where Khalil is currently held.
Legal experts note that the law being used to deport Khalil has rarely been tested. In the 1990s, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, former President Trump's sister, ruled the law unconstitutional in a separate case. However, that decision was later overturned on a technicality, leaving the law's constitutionality unresolved.
