A federal judge of New Jersey retained the case of the graduate of the University of Columbia, Mahmoud Khalil, rejecting the government’s request to move the case in Louisiana, where the Palestinian activist was detained following his arrest last month.
“The petitioner was in New Jersey on March 9 at 4:40 am. And the Congress demanded that the petition be considered as having been deposited in New Jersey at the same time. This competes for this court with competence.
Opinion, unless the government is on appeal, would open the way to Fabiarz to decide the most substantial questions of Khalil’s pursuit.
Khalil, a head of camp demonstrations in Columbia last spring, was arrested on March 8 in his student building in New York. He was taken to 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, then to an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before finding himself in a detention center in Louisiana, his lawyers said.
After his lawyers filed a request for immediate release from Khalil, a federal judge in New York last month moved the case to New Jersey.
Khalil’s lawyers have urged a federal judge to keep his Habeas business in New Jersey to prevent the government from spending another “Kafka-Esque” from Khalil from one detention center to another.
“We are grateful, the court judiciously understood that the government cannot try to manipulate the jurisdiction of the American courts in a transparent attempt to protect their unconstitutional – and frankly frightening behavior,” Khalil’s lawyer said Baher Azmy on Tuesday. “We are impatiently awaiting the next phase of this affair, which is to get Mahmoud out of detention and in the arms of his family, then to prove the attempted deportation of Mahmoud and others of the Trump administration is nothing other than unconstitutional reprisals for the protected discourse.”
New Jersey is also closer to Khalil’s wife, who is about to give birth.
“I am relieved of the court’s decision today to maintain the current case of my husband in New Jersey,” his wife said on Tuesday, Noor Abdalla. “This is an important step towards securing Mahmoud’s freedom, but there is still a lot to do. While the countdown of the birth of our son begins and I get closer and get closer to my deadline, I will continue to strongly defend Mahmoud’s freedom and for his return in complete safety so that he can be by my side to welcome our first child.”
Mahmoud Khalil talks to the media members of the Rafah camp revolt at Columbia University during the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, New York, June 1, 2024.
Jeenah Moon / Reuters, file
On Friday, during a hearing to find out if the case should stay in New Jersey, Azmy told the judge that there was a “forum purchases” to find a court that could be the nicest in government position.
Outside the court, Azmy said the government was simply trying to delay arbitration of the real legality of Khalil’s detention.
A government lawyer, August Flenger, argued that “for the legal certainty, the case belongs to Louisiana” because this is where Khalil is detained.
“The clearest itinerary is to make the case heard in Louisiana,” said Fllantje during the hearing on Friday.
After having decided on the question of the jurisdiction, the judge can now examine the substantial question of knowing whether the detention of Khalil, a holder of the green card, was legal.
Khalil should appear before an immigration judge for a procedure for referring on April 8.
He is part of half a dozen international students who supported the Palestinians to hold by the administration in recent weeks. No accusation was made against any of them.
The administration argued that the continuous presence of students in the country undermines the American foreign policy and revoked their status. Student lawyers argued that the administration punished them for a legal activity.
