Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil will remain in the detention of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Louisiana for the time being, a judge ruled.
At a procedural hearing in New York on Wednesday, New York federal judge Jesse Furman ordered that Khalil be allowed at least one phone call Wednesday and one Thursday with his counsel. On Monday, the judge blocked efforts to deport Khalil until his attorneys and the federal government could appear in court.
His attorneys complained that they hadn’t been able to see their client since his Saturday arrest.
“He was taken by U.S. government agents in retaliation, essentially, for exercising his First Amendment rights, for speaking up in defense of Palestinians in Gaza and beyond, for being critical of the U.S. government and of the Israeli government,” his attorney, Ramzi Kassem, said outside court following the hearing.
On Saturday, Khalil, a Columbia University student and a permanent resident on a green card from Syria, was arrested by immigration authorities. The Trump administration announced it would deport him over his involvement in the school’s protests, a move that was blocked by Furman on Monday until the Wednesday hearing.
According to a senior homeland security official speaking with CNN, Khalil’s detention and possible deportation were based on a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which holds that “an alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.”
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Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the arrest was made in accordance with President Donald Trump’s recent executive order prohibiting antisemitism.
Others, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James, said they were “concerned” about the arrest. “My office is monitoring the situation, and we are in contact with his attorney,” she added.