Judge Jesse Furman says efforts to deport Palestinian rights advocates are “exceptional” and require “careful” review.
A US federal court has rejected President Donald Trump’s administration’s efforts to dismiss the legal challenge to detain Palestinian rights activist Mahmoud Khalil’s detention and deportation.
A graduate student at Columbia University and a legal permanent resident, Halil has been detained by the government since March 8th last year to force him to participate in the Gaza campus protests.
On Wednesday, Judge Jesse Furman ruled that Halil’s legal request for judicial review of Halil’s detention, known as habeas corps. The Trump administration has asked the court to reject the assignment.
Furman said Halil’s efforts to deport him violate the rights of freedom of speech and legitimate processes guaranteed under the US Constitution.
“These are undoubtedly serious claims and arguments that they will ensure careful review by the court.
He described Khalil’s ordeal as “an exceptional case.”
However, the judge ruled that his New York-based court could not award the case, saying that his New York-based court should be transferred to the state of New Jersey, where Halil was held when the assignment was filed.
The government has attempted to move the case to Louisiana, a Republican-controlled state. There, Khalil is currently being detained in an immigration enforcement facility.
Furman said his previous order, which banned the government from deporting Halil, must remain intact while the case is under review. However, he did not control the activist’s demands that he be released on bail, so he left the matter to the New Jersey Court, which oversees the petition.
He ordered the court clerk to assign the petition “quickly” but there is no exact date when a New Jersey court will control or schedule a case hearing.
The Trump administration is pushing for banishment of Halil under a rarely used provision of immigration law that gives the Secretary of State to eliminate non-citizens whose presence in the United States is considered “adverse foreign policy effects.”
The US government has not charged Halil with any crimes. Instead, US officials denounced him for “activities along Hamas.”
However, supporters of Halil say they engaged in peaceful protests against Columbia University’s ties with Israeli forces as part of a wave of campus demonstrations that swept the country last year.
Halil’s detention raised concerns about Trump’s willingness to free speech in his crackdown on Palestinian rights in the United States.
The activist whose wife is a US citizen and eight months pregnant was arrested late at night by immigration enforcement agents and transferred to two different facilities without notice to family members or lawyers.
Critics likened his treatment to the forced disappearance by an authoritarian government.
“The Trump administration is trying to send a message with Mr. Halil’s illegal and deplorable loss,” Hannah Fulham, senior policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), told Al Jazeera last week.
“This is not when the US government armed immigration enforcement to separate families and terrorize the community.
Halil issued a statement from his confinement late Tuesday, describing himself as a political prisoner.
“My arrest was a direct result of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated the end of the free Palestine and Gaza genocide.
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