The Trump administration does not plan to publish the pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil despite the decision of a federal judge this week that he cannot be expelled or detained on the basis of a decision by Secretary of State Marco Rubio which he threatens national security.
In a letter tabled Friday afternoon, officials of the Ministry of Justice argued that even if Khalil cannot be detained according to Rubio’s decision, according to the judge’s decision, he may be detained for other reasons. Officials have cited immigration laws.
“The court rather heard the stakeholders to have Khalil” on the basis of the Secretary of State’s determination, “said MJ officials in the letter.” This injunction does not interfere with the power of the respondents to hold Khalil for other reasons. “”
To justify Khalil’s withdrawal, Rubio published a note in April, citing an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1952. It allows the Secretary of State to deport non-citizens if the secretary determines their presence in the country would lead to “potentially serious consequences of foreign policy for the United States.” Rubio wrote in the note that allowing Khalil, who led demonstrations against the war against Gaza, to stay in the United States would create a “hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States”.
But the judge, Michael Farbiarz of the American district court of New Jersey, judged Wednesday that the reasons for foreign policy for Khalil’s detention are insufficient and probably unconstitutional. Farbiaz remained the preliminary injunction until 9:30 am on Friday, giving the government time to appeal. And Friday morning, Khalil’s legal team submitted a letter, asking the court to order his release.
“The government has not filed an notice of appeal to the order of this court by the deadline ordered by the court for the preliminary injunction to be in force,” said the letter.
Khalil, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and obtained permanent American resident status, has become a widely recognized activist in the middle of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University last year. In March, he was suddenly arrested outside his student accommodation on the campus and detained before the Trump administration accused him of carrying out “activities aligned in Hamas, an designated terrorist organization”. Since then, his legal advisor has challenged efforts to deport him. He has not been accused of any crime.
A spokesperson for the Department of Internal Security allegedly alleged that Khalil had acted to “glorify and support the terrorists”.
In a statement filed last week, Khalil qualified “grotesque and false” complaints.
“These are not only attacks against my character; they were efforts to erase my humanity,” said Khalil in the legal file.
In the midst of his three months of detention, Khalil also became a father and fought to contact his newborn son, Deen. Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, a dentist from Michigan, gave birth in April. Ice previously rejected Khalil’s request to attend the birth of his son, according to court documents.
“The most immediate and visceral damage I have encountered directly concern the birth of my son, Deen,” Khalil said in the legal file. “Instead of holding my wife’s hand in the delivery room, I crouched myself on a floor of the detention center, whispering a crackling telephone line while working alone.”
Ice also refused a request last week to make Khalil moved from Louisiana to an establishment closer to his family, without explanation, according to emails. The agency’s own policy requires the detention of non -citizens or legal tutors, who are primary guards or who have custody of minor children, in establishments close to their children.
“The ICE directive recognizes that the government should have no role in the destruction of family unity, and yet that is exactly what is happening here,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the American American Liberties Union of Louisiana, who is part of the Khalil legal team.
Khalil met his son for the first time last month, said his lawyers, just before an immigration hearing.
Khalil has attracted a large support of pro-Palestinian activists and defenders of freedom of expression, his arrest and his detention provoking demonstrations across the country. More recently, several celebrities who are also fathers, including the actor Mo Amer, the actors Mark Ruffalo and Mahershala Ali and the guitarist of “Rage Against the Machine”, Tom Morello, gathered to read a letter that Khalil wrote to his son before the Father’s Day.
“I am a Palestinian refugee, asylee in America, became a citizen in 2009, and in 2023, I had a son,” said Amer. “Mahmoud’s letter is like a dagger in the heart, and that’s why I do this.”
