Home
+
Published : 29 May 2025, 11:53 AM
The Trump administration's bid to deport Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is likely unconstitutional, a US judge said on Wednesday, finding that the little-used provision of immigration law invoked by the government was too vague.
US District Judge Michael Farbiarz's ruling marked the first time a federal judge has weighed in on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump's use of a law granting the US secretary of state the power to seek the deportation of any non-citizen whose presence in the country is deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests.
The Newark, New Jersey-based judge said the law, known as Section 1227, was vague because people would have no way of knowing what might get them deported.
"An ordinary person would have had no real inkling that a Section 1227 removal could go forward in this way --- without the Secretary first determining that there has been an impact on American relations with another country," Farbiarz said in a 101-page ruling.
Khalil is currently being held in immigration detention in Louisiana. Farbiarz' ruling did not address his bid to be released. The judge asked Khalil to submit additional written arguments before he makes a final ruling.
Khalil was arrested by immigration agents on Mar 8 after the State Department used the law to revoke his green card. He was the first student known to be arrested as part of Trump's effort to deport foreign students who took part in pro-Palestinian protests that swept US college campuses after Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent military assault.
Khalil and his supporters say his arrest and attempted deportation are violations of his right to freedom of speech under the US Constitution's First Amendment.
Farbiarz has blocked officials from deporting Khalil while his challenge to the constitutionality of his arrest plays out.
He wrote that he would not rule for now on whether Khalil's First Amendment rights were violated.
In a statement, Khalil's legal team said it would give Farbiarz the additional argument he sought as quickly as possible.
"Every day Mahmoud spends languishing in an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, is an affront to justice, and we won't stop working until he is free," his lawyers said.
The State Department declined to comment. Spokespeople for the White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
OTHER STUDENTS RELEASED
Civil rights groups argue that Trump's administration unlawfully detained the 30-year-old public policy student in retaliation for his criticism of Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
The Hamas attack killed 1,195 people, according to Israeli tallies, and Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Khalil, a Palestinian who was born and raised in a refugee camp in Syria, entered the US on a student visa in 2022 and became a lawful permanent resident last year through his wife Dr Noor Abdalla, an American citizen. Abdalla gave birth to the couple's first child last month.
Federal judges in recent weeks have ordered another Palestinian Columbia student, Mohsen Mahdawi, and a Turkish student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, Rumeysa Ozturk, to be released from immigration detention while they challenge the government's efforts to deport them.
