Mahmoud Khalil’s immigration case moves to New Jersey from New York

A federal judge in New York transferred an immigration petition filed by Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil to New Jersey.

The decision on Wednesday offers a compromise in the bellwether case, while Khalil’s lawyers and the Trump administration argue about whether Khalil should have been arrested by immigration authorities in the first place.

Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, has been held in an immigration detention center in Louisiana for over a week. Trump administration lawyers wanted to move his case to Louisiana, where he is being held, and where any appeals are likely to end up in a more conservative-leaning court.

But Khalil’s lawyers sought to move the case to New York, where he resides and was first arrested. New York Judge Jesse Furman granted the transfer to New Jersey instead, where Khalil was briefly held at the Elizabeth Contract Detention Center while his attorneys filed a petition challenging his arrest order from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Given the undisputed fact that Khalil was detained in the District of New Jersey at the time his lawyer filed the Petition, this Court lacks jurisdiction over most, if not all, of Khalil’s claims,” Furman said in his decision. He added that the New Jersey court will need to decide on the various issues in Khalil’s petition, including whether he should be released from the Louisiana detention center.

In his decision, Furman kept in place his previous order that barred the government from moving forward with deporting Khalil while his case plays out.

Khalil’s arrest has been seen as a test case in President Trump’s efforts to increase deportations and strip legal protections from those who go against the administration’s priorities. Khalil, who was born in Syria but is of Palestinian descent, was one of the pro-Palestinian students who negotiated on behalf of campus protesters pressing Columbia University to divest from Israel over its war with Hamas in Gaza.

Khalil’s lawyers, who include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), are asking federal courts to declare the Trump administration’s detention of Khalil unlawful, and that he be allowed to return to New York, where his 8-week pregnant U.S. citizen wife resides.

“This is just the beginning, but it is a moment to celebrate,” Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney at the ACLU, said in a statement. “The court’s ruling sends a critical message to courts across the country, who are sure to face similar unprecedented challenges to their authority in the days that come, that the judiciary must not shy from its constitutional role.”

Officials have defended Khalil’s arrest, doubling down on a little-known provision in immigration law that gives the secretary of state discretion to move to deport noncitizens when officials have “reasonable ground to believe that [their] presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

“We’ve invited and allowed the student to come into the country, and he’s put himself in the middle of the process of basically pro-Palestinian activity,” said Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, speaking to NPR. “And at this point, the secretary of state can review his visa process at any point and revoke it.”

Khalil’s lawyers have asked for him to be released while the litigation continues, for a judge to prohibit his deportation under foreign policy grounds while this case is litigated, and for a judge to prohibit the government from arresting, detaining and removing noncitizens who engage in “protected expressions in support of Palestine or critical of Israel” while this case plays out in courts.