Projekt: Derrida

A federal judge in New York issued a ruling on Monday afternoon that the government cannot deport Mahmoud Khalil “unless and until the Court orders otherwise.”

US District Judge Jesse M. Furman set a hearing for Wednesday, 12 March, on Khalil’s habeas corpus petition – a legal challenge to the lawfulness of his detention. Khalil remains in federal custody.

As of Monday morning, Mahmoud Khalil was being detained at a federal immigration facility in Louisiana.

The recent Columbia graduate was inside his university-owned apartment on Saturday night in New York City when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entered and detained him, his attorney Amy Greer, told the Associated Press.

As he languishes in a cell far from his home and family, fellow students are denouncing Columbia’s silence and apparent complicity in his arrest.

On Sunday, the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed Khalil’s arrest, claiming it was for “activities aligned to Hamas.”

Khalil’s detention is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on supporters of Palestinian rights under the pretext of fighting “anti-Semitism” and support for “terrorism.”

Well-known and respected on campus, Khalil led negotiations between university officials and students during last year’s campus encampment protesting the Israeli genocide in Palestine and amid the ongoing crackdown.

An Algerian citizen of Palestinian origin and a legal permanent resident of the United States, Khalil’s green card is supposed to afford him all the constitutional free speech protections enjoyed by US citizens.

According to Greer, the ICE agents also threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, a US citizen who is eight months pregnant.

“Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa,” the Associated Press reported.

(📸 Courtesy of Writers Against the War on Gaza)

Excerpt from "Columbia complicit in Trump arrest of student leader Mahmoud Khalil" by Ali Abunimah. Read the full article at https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/columbia-complicit-trump-arrest-student-leader-mahmoud-khalil