Judge sides with Trump DOJ to keep Mahmoud Khalil in detention
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Judge sides with Trump DOJ to keep Mahmoud Khalil in detention
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, of New Jersey, rejected the 30-year-old Palestinian Columbia University graduate’s request to be released after three months in immigration detention. The government had until June 13 to appeal the judge’s initial ruling. Justice Department lawyers argued Khalil could be held for misrepresenting information on his permanent residency application, under a federal immigration statute lawyers have presented to the court. Khalil’s lawyer, Amy Greer, said the government was using “cruel, transparent delay tactics” to keep him away from his wife and newborn son on their first Father’s Day, on June 15. He has been held in an immigration detention center in Louisiana since March, and his lawyers have fought for his release to be with his wife, Deen, and their newborn son, Dean, for three months. The Justice Department had no comment beyond the filings, an agency spokesperson said.
On June 13, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, of New Jersey, rejected the 30-year-old Palestinian Columbia University graduate’s request to be released after three months in immigration detention.
On June 11, Farbiarz initially ruled Khalil couldn’t be detained by Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that he threatened American foreign policy interests. But Farbiarz left open other options for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold Khalil.
Ahead of a court-ordered deadline to respond on June 13, Justice Department lawyers argued Khalil could be held for misrepresenting information on his permanent residency application, under a federal immigration statute lawyers have presented to the court.
“Khalil is now detained based on that other charge of removability,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a June 13 letter submitted to court. “Detaining Khalil based on that other ground of removal is lawful.”
They said Khalil now has options to seek his release with the charge pending.
Farbiarz sided with that assessment and said the secondary charge hasn’t been blocked by the court.
He said, “a number of avenues are now available to” Khalil, “including a bail application to the immigration judge presiding over the immigration case.”
Khalil’s lawyer, Amy Greer, said that the government was using “cruel, transparent delay tactics” to keep him away from his wife and newborn son on their first Father’s Day, on June 15.
“Instead of celebrating together, he is languishing in ICE detention as punishment for his advocacy on behalf of his fellow Palestinians,” Greer said in a statement.
The Justice Department had no comment beyond the filings, an agency spokesperson said in an email.
The government had until June 13 to appeal the judge’s initial ruling. Justice Department lawyers pushed Khalil to follow the administrative actions instead of filing in federal court.
“These administrative processes are the proper avenues for Khalil to seek release, not having a federal district court hold that the government cannot detain Khalil on a charge that the Court never found to be unlawful,” the government lawyers said in the letter.
In his original June 11 ruling, Farbiarz Khalil’s request to temporarily block federal officials from deporting him under Rubio’s determination. On June 13, he extended the government’s time to respond to appeal his decision. Justice Department lawyers instead brought up the second argument.
Khalil’s legal team sent a letter to Farbiarz the morning of June 13, requesting that the client be freed since the appeal from the government did not meet the morning deadline.
Khalil has been held in an immigration detention center in Louisiana since March. His lawyers have fought for his release to be with his wife and newborn son, Deen.
However, a June 12 email sent to Khalil’s lawyers by Brian Acuna, director of the New Orleans ICE Field Office, stated that he had “no information [that] your client will be released or a time for that,” court records showed. His lawyers instead needed to contact ICE’s Office of Chief Counsel on that matter, the email said.
Immigration agents arrested Khalil, a green card holder married to an American citizen, on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment building in Manhattan.
A Palestinian born in Syria, Khalil was a spokesman and negotiator for pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia. Khalil was not accused of any crime.
Noncitizens can be deported if the Secretary of State finds that their presence threatens U.S. foreign policy interests, even if their beliefs, statements or associations are “otherwise lawful,” the Trump administration argued. They cited a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 as the basis.
Farbiarz ruled against the Secretary of State’s determination and said the secondary argument — that he omitted information on his application to enter the country — “almost surely flows” from Rubio’s determination.
On June 13, Farbiarz said Khalil hadn’t given factual evidence as to why it could be unlawful to detain him on the secondary charge.