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Mahmoud Khalil's case transferred from Louisiana to New Jersey [1]

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Date: 2025-04

Judge orders Mahmoud Khalil's case transferred from Louisiana to New Jersey

19 March 2025 Share Save Share Save

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A US court has rejected the Trump administration's bid to dismiss Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil's legal challenge to his detention and has ordered the case transferred to New Jersey. Mr Khalil, a US permanent resident and Columbia University graduate, was detained on 8 March by immigration officers and faces deportation for his role in 2024 campus protests against the war in Gaza. His legal team had pushed to bring him back from a detention centre in Louisiana where he was sent after his arrest in New York. In a letter from his detention facility on Tuesday, Mr Khalil described himself as a "political prisoner" targeted for "exercising my right to free speech".

Watch: Moment Mahmoud Khalil is arrested by US immigration officers in New York

Mr Khalil's arrest has been linked to President Donald Trump's promise to crack down on student demonstrators he accuses of "un-American activity". Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained him at his university-owned Manhattan apartment and initially placed him in a New Jersey immigration facility before transferring him to a detention centre in Jena, Louisiana, according to ICE records. The Trump administration had asked the New York court to dismiss Mr Khalil's challenge or move it to Louisiana, home to one of the nation's most conservative appellate courts. Palestinian Columbia student activist speaks out about his arrest

US court temporarily blocks effort to deport Gaza protest leader

Who is Mahmoud Khalil, Palestinian student activist facing US deportation? Rejecting the administration's bid on Wednesday, District Judge Jesse Furman ruled that, since the district of New Jersey was "the one and only district in which Khalil could have filed his petition" seeking his release from detention, the case must be transferred there rather than Louisiana. The judge also upheld his 10 March order barring Mr Khalil's deportation while the case continues, but did not rule on his lawyers' request for immediate release. The US justice department has not commented on the ruling. Mr Khalil's lawyer Samah Sisay said in a statement on Wednesday that the government moved him to Louisiana to avoid having the case heard in New York or New Jersey. "Mr Khalil should be free and home with his wife awaiting the birth of their first child, and we will continue to do everything possible to make that happen," Ms Sisay told Reuters. Mr Khalil's wife, who is a US citizen, is eight months pregnant. His lawyers have argued that he was exercising free speech rights to demonstrate in support of Palestinians in Gaza and against US support for Israel. They accused the government of "open repression of student activism and political speech". Trump has previously stated that foreign students found to be "terrorist sympathisers" would face deportation. Mr Khalil has not been charged with any crime. On Wednesday, Trump deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said the administration believes "that any foreign nationals visiting our country are prohibited from supporting any designated terrorist organization" such as Hamas.

Jeanette Vizguerra's immigration case also draws protests in Colorado

Meanwhile, another case has roiled immigration activists after the arrest of Jeanette Vizguerra, an undocumented woman in Denver who made national headlines during President Trump's first term. She was scheduled for deportation in 2017 but took shelter in a church basement in Denver, hoping she would be protected at a house of worship. She was later granted a one-year-stay from deportation by the Biden administration in 2021. She moved to the US, without proper documentation, from Mexico City in 1997, and she has been considered a voice for the immigrant community for more than two decades. Ms Vizguerra was taken into custody on Monday morning by federal agents outside a Target store where she worked, CBS News, the BBC's partner in the US, reported.

Watch: Protests in Colorado after immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra arrested

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[1] Url: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwygldgjkgyo

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