Judge orders Mahmoud Khalil case to proceed in District of New Jersey

The case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student with a green card who has become the most prominent example of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian activists, will proceed in the District of New Jersey, a judge ruled yesterday.

Khalil, a Columbia student who participated in the university’s anti-Israel protests, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York on March 8 and was eventually sent to a detention facility in Louisiana. In the interim, however, he was briefly held in New Jersey, and while he was there his lawyer filed a petition for his release.

That timing, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote yesterday, means that the case should be heard in New Jersey instead of Louisiana, which is where the Trump administration sought to have it be heard. Farbiarz, a Biden appointee, will preside over the case.

The decision was praised by civil rights groups, among them the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

“Mr. Khalil has been unlawfully detained in direct retaliation [against] his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights,” ACLU-NJ executive director Amol Sinha said. “The federal government continues to prolong proceedings despite knowing that targeting a lawful permanent resident over protected speech is indefensible in a court of law. We’re grateful the court has ordered the case to continue in the District of New Jersey, so Mr. Khalil is one step closer to returning to his family.”