The deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, has been halted by a federal judge. Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York issued the order Monday and scheduled a hearing in the case for Wednesday. Khalil, who is a legal permanent resident with a green card and is married to a US citizen, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Saturday night who told him his visa had been revoked. President Trump linked the arrest to his executive order aimed at combating antisemitism on US college campuses, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "Hamas supporters" would be seeing their green cards revoked, Politico reports.
- "The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the US and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes. To be clear: the first amendment protects everyone in the US. The government's actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate," the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement following Khalil's arrest.
- New York's attorney general says she is monitoring the situation, the Guardian reports.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Khalil's detainment a "tyrannical" and unconstitutional move, the New Republic reports. "If the federal government can disappear a legal US permanent resident without reason or warrant, then they can disappear US citizens too," she warned.
The judge said his ruling was necessary to "preserve the court's jurisdiction" in the case,
NBC News reports. He said Khalil must not be removed from the country or even the state, but he has reportedly already been taken to a detention center in Louisiana. (More
pro-Palestinian protesters stories.)
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