A federal judge has ruled that Secretary of State Marco Rubio likely violated the Constitution when he stripped Mahmoud Khalil of his green card and ordered him deported over his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University.
Judge Farbiarz said Khalil had not yet proven that his detention is causing him “irreparable harm,” and gave him more time to provide evidence that it is.
But the judge ruled Khalil did not provide enough evidence for the First Amendment retaliation claim and denied his request to be released on those grounds.
That same judge ruled last month that she had no authority to question Rubio’s decision to deport Khalil.
In Wednesday’s ruling, the federal judge in New Jersey said he would soon issue another order detailing the next steps in the case.
According to a federal judge, Secretary of State Marco Rubio most likely broke the Constitution when he ordered Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation and revoked his green card because of his pro-Palestinian activities at Columbia University.
However, in a long, conflicting decision, U. S. Following his arrest by ICE agents in New York City on March 8, Khalil has been detained in federal immigration detention in Louisiana. New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz has declined to order his release for the time being. Khalil has yet to demonstrate that his incarceration is causing him “irreparable harm,” according to Judge Farbiarz, who granted him additional time to do so.
However, he also implied that even if Khalil can demonstrate that, the government may be justified in holding him for the time being on a different charge it brought against him in an immigration court, which asserts that he committed fraud by omitting certain personal information from his green card application last year.
The government only brought the charge days after Khalil’s arrest, according to his attorneys, as retaliation for his speech, and they said it was without merit. However, the judge denied Khalil’s request for release on the grounds that he had not presented sufficient evidence to support his First Amendment retaliation claim. The attorneys for Khalil are attempting to convince a Louisiana immigration judge to dismiss that charge. Last month, the same judge decided she lacked the power to challenge Rubio’s decision to deport Khalil.
The New Jersey federal judge’s decision on Wednesday stated that he would shortly issue a second order outlining the case’s next steps.
The ACLU released a statement in which Khalil’s attorneys pledged to continue their fight for his release.
The statement read, “The district court held what we already know: Secretary of State Rubio’s weaponization of immigration law to punish Mahmoud and others like him is likely unconstitutional,” the authors wrote. “We will do everything in our power to give the court the extra data it asked for in order to support our efforts to free Mahmoud or return him to his wife and infant son in any other way.”. “..”.
A request for comment from the State Department was not immediately answered.
In the lobby of his apartment building in New York, Khalil was taken into custody by ICE agents after Rubio claimed to have concluded that Khalil’s pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University was disruptive, antisemitic, and a threat to the United States’ foreign policy objectives of eliminating antisemitism globally. The Secretary of State has the exclusive power to order someone deported if he finds that their presence in the nation “compromises a compelling United States foreign policy interest,” according to a little-known federal statute he cited. “,”.
According to Farbiarz’s ruling, Rubio most likely abused the statute by singling Khalil out for criticism for his activism.
“The Secretary is highly respected for her determination. However, Farbiarz noted that “arbitrary enforcement can also be dangerous when one person is assigned to the position if his decision deviates too much from the level established by Congress.”. The Secretary’s did in this case. “..”.
Under President Trump’s crackdown on students who participated in campus demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza, Khalil’s arrest was the first.
