1 day Ago
Federal Judge Michael Farbiarz issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday preventing the U.S. government from deporting or detaining Khalil in response to a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio's edict accused Khalil of representing a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests by being in the country, and invoked a seldom-used section of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.
"The government cannot claim an interest in the enforcement of what might turn out to be an unconstitutional statute," Farbiarz wrote, adding that the case implicated important challenges to free speech.
Blow to Trump Administration on Legal Front A federal judge has blocked a rule by the Trump administration that would have restricted the ability of Central American migrants to apply for asylum in the United States.
The court's ruling does not release Khalil from detention, though it prevents the authorities from deporting him until Friday so the federal government has time to appeal. Khalil has been detained since his arrest in Louisiana in connection with protests on the campus of Columbia University.
Attorneys for DHS counter that Khalil lied about his background on immigration documents, withholding that he previously worked for the British Embassy in Beirut with the Syrian office and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. He also apparently neglected to disclose his involvement in the Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
Rubio invoked Khalil's protest activity as reason for ouster, calling the demonstrations "antisemitic and disruptive," and claiming that these actions have undermined foreign policy goals and the safety of Jewish students.
Background and Outlook
Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, has Algerian citizenship through his mother and says his freedom of expression is being violated. Prosecutors told The New York Times that Mr. Kaba is neither being punished for what he said in court nor for his legal representation, but for his crime, and his legal team's claim that the government has seized his speech as a pretext for deportation is false.
"This decision is further clear confirmation that you cannot use our immigration system to censor dissent," said his lawyer, Johnny Sinodis.
There are no additional hearings scheduled in Khalil's immigration case and the government is considered to be on the next move.
