President Donald Trump received a legal blow on Friday afternoon as a federal judge ordered the release on bail of Mahmoud Khalil, the international Columbia University graduate student who became one of the first pro-Palestine activists the administration had arrested.
Khalil has been detained for roughly three months, separated from his wife and newborn child, at some points held in an infamous network of detention facilities in Louisiana.
According to The New York Times, Newark-based U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz "said during a two-hour hearing that he had been persuaded by Mr. Khalil’s arguments that his detention was an unlawful retaliation against his pro-Palestinian speech," adding that “There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish Mr. Khalil. And of course that would be unconstitutional.”
Farbiarz said earlier this week he had already seen evidence to this effect, telling the Trump administration they could not keep Khalil detained solely on the determination of Secretary of State Marco Rubio that his activities were contrary to U.S. foreign policy. However, at that time, he did not order Khalil's outright release.
Khalil was a key figure in the protests against Israel's occupation of Gaza on the Columbia University campus last year, where demonstrators demanded that the university divest from any holdings that might be facilitating Israel's fighting capabilities.
The Trump administration has argued that Khalil is a danger to the country because he has allegedly spread propaganda in favor of the terrorist group Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack in 2023 kicked off the current war.