Khalil can't be held, removed for now, rules federal judge
By: Eduardo Cuevas
USA Today
..... A federal judge ruled Secretary of State Marco Rubio can't detain or removed Mahmoud Khalil from the United States - for now.
.....
In a June 11 [2205] ruling, Distinct Judge Michael, Farbiarz, of New Jersey, granted the 30-year-old Palestinian Columbia University graduate's request to temporarily block federal officials from deporting him.
..... Khalil, who is a lawful permanent resident, has been held in a detention facility in Louisiana since he was detained in his university-owned New York City apartment building lobby in March. [2025] His lawyers have fought for his release to be with his wife and newborn son, Deen.
..... The Trump administration has said it stripped him of his legal status for his role in Pro-Palestinan protests at the Ivy League campus in New York city.
..... Rubio had citied an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. It allows the secretary of state to remove someone if there was or presence in the country affects American foreign policy interests.
..... Farbiarz ruled against Rubio's authority to remove Khalil, citing harm to Khalil's career and reputation, and that it was chilling his right to speech.
..... "This adds up to irreparable harm," he said. Neither the Justice Department nor the State Department immediately returned requests for comment.
..... "This vindicates what Mahmoud has maintained since day one - that the government cannot detain or deport him based on Rubio's say-so," Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer for Khalil and a law professor at the City University of New York, said in a statement.
..... The administration has also sought Khalil's removal based on failure to accurately complete his residency application.
.....
However, Farbiarz noted hat "lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained pending removal for the sort of alleged omissions in a lawful-permanent-resident application that the Petitioner is charged with here."
..... Farbiarz said it was :overwhelmingly likely" that Khalil wouldn't be detained solely on an application issue. Instead, Khalil's detention "almost surely flows" form Rubio's determination.
..... Farbiarz stayed his preliminary injunction until the morning of June 13, [2025] the case.
.....
He also said the preliminary injunction wouldn't go into effect until Khalil posts a nominal bod of $1.
..... Noor Abdallah, Khalil's wife, said she hoped Khalil would be home by Father's Day, June 15. [2025] His wife, who was 8 months pregnant when Khalil was detained, gave birth to their first child while he was in detention.
..... "This is the news we've been waiting over three months for," she said in a statement. "Mahmoud must be released immediately and safely returned home to New York to be with me and our newborn baby, Deen."