A US judge has denied a bid by President Donald Trump's administration to dismiss detained Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil's challenge to the legality of his arrest by immigration agents over his participation in pro-Palestine protests but moved the case to New Jersey.
On Wednesday, Manhattan-based US District Judge Jesse Furman said in the latest order that it agrees with the US government that Khalil’s petition cannot be heard in Manhattan district but sided with Khalil’s petition that it should be transferred to New Jersey, "not dismissed or transferred to the Western District of Louisiana."
Louisiana is a more conservative court that could be more favourable to the government.
Furman also agreed with the Justice Department that he did not have jurisdiction over the case. The judge ordered the case moved to federal court in the state of New Jersey, where Khalil was held at the time his lawyers first challenged his arrest in New York.
Furman did not rule on Khalil's bid to be released on bail from detention.
Khalil's lawyers, who argue his detention violates free speech protections under the US Constitution's First Amendment, called the court order an "important step."
"Mr. Khalil should be free and home with his wife awaiting the birth of their first child, and we will continue to do everything possible to make that happen," Khalil's lawyer Samah Sisay said in a statement.
"This is an important step toward ensuring that the administration's unconstitutional practices are stopped in their tracks and that Mr. Khalil is reunited with his family in New York," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Khalil in the case, in a statement.
TRT Global - Members of Jewish Voice for Peace protest inside Trump Tower in support of Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who has been detained and faces deportation over his activism against Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Khalil says arrest 'direct consequence' to free speech
Khalil, the prominent pro-Palestine activist and a US resident who was detained by the US authorities for his Gaza activism at Columbia University, has sent his first letter from detention in Lousiana, in which he said his arrest is a direct consequence of free speech and a testament to the power of the student protests in shifting the public opinion toward the liberation of Palestine.
"My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana, where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law," Khalil wrote.
He added that "the agents threatened to arrest her [Noor] for not leaving my side."
Khalil was arrested on March 8 by Homeland Security agents, who he said refused to provide a warrant, for his activism for Gaza amid Israel's genocidal war in the blockaded enclave.
President Donald Trump hailed his arrest and said it was the "first of many," while thousands protested his detention and demanded his release.
In his letter, Khalil said that at the time of his arrest his only concern was his pregnant wife, who he said agents threatened to arrest for not leaving his side.
"DHS (Department of Homeland Security) would not tell me anything for hours — I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation," he said.
He added that he was transferred from 26 Federal Plaza to another facility in New Jersey, where he had to sleep on the floor and was denied a blanket despite his request.
