A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration's efforts to deport Columbia University pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, in part to protect U.S. foreign policy, is likely unconstitutional.
New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz said that Khalil, who had a legally obtained green card to permanently reside in the United States, was “likely to succeed” in his claim that the administration’s determination that he is a threat to U.S. foreign policy is “unconstitutionally vague.”
But Farbiarz stopped short of releasing Khalil from detention in Louisiana, where he has been imprisoned for nearly three months.
The judge said the Trump administration’s use of the little-known provision in immigration law to deport Khalil would be “unprecedented.”
The Department of Homeland Security cited the provision in its action against Khalil that grants the secretary of state the authority to deport someone if it’s determined that the person “would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
The foreign policy law was “unconstitutional as applied” to Khalil, who “acted solely within the United States,” Farbiarz wrote in his 101-page ruling.
The judge also noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio failed to “affirmatively determine” that Khalil’s actions had in any way affected U.S. relations with another country.
Farbiarz, however, also noted that Khalil must provide proof regarding other issues raised by the Trump administration, including that he failed to provide information about memberships in certain organizations when he applied for his green card.
Farbiarz said he would soon issue another order detailing the next steps in the case.
Khalil was stripped of his green card and arrested in front of his then-pregnant wife in their New York City apartment building on March 8. He was sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, roughly 1,300 miles away.
Rubio has revoked hundreds of student visas over campus activism in the wake of Israel’s devastation in Gaza, leading to several high-profile arrests of international scholars.
The administration has accused Khalil of “antisemitic activities” and supporting Hamas, which he has flatly rejected. Officials concede he has not committed any crime, but claim he can be removed over what Rubio has characterized as “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
Khalil’s legal team praised Wednesday’s ruling.
“The district court held what we already knew: Secretary Rubio's weaponization of immigration law to punish Mahmoud and others like him is likely unconstitutional,” attorneys said in a statement.
“We will work as quickly as possible to provide the court the additional information it requested supporting our effort to free Mahmoud or otherwise return him to his wife and newborn son,” they added. “Every day Mahmoud spends languishing in an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, is an affront to justice, and we won't stop working until he is free.”
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