![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2204132888.avif\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDemonstrators gather outside the Federal Courthouse in New York City to show support for Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil and to demand his release from ICE detention on March 12, 2025. (Mostafa Bassim\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Khalil was the first leader of last year\u2019s pro-Palestinian student protests to be arrested under the Trump administration\u2019s push to deport non-citizens who they said fueled antisemitism on campuses.<\/p>\n
Others have already been released on court orders after multiple federal judges ruled that the administration had violated the students\u2019 rights by detaining them despite not accusing them of crimes.<\/p>\n
Last month, Judge Michael Farbiarz of the Federal District Court in New Jersey ruled that the law that the State Department cited in justifying Khalil\u2019s deportation \u2014 a little-used provision that says the United States can seek to eject non-citizens whose actions undermine U.S. policy \u2014 was likely unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, he additionally ruled that Khalil had shown that he was being irreparably harmed by being detained while the government seeks to deport him. Khalil\u2019s son was born in New York since his arrest.<\/p>\n
Farbiarz left a small window of opportunity for the Trump administration to press for Khalil\u2019s continued detention, saying that they could argue by 9:30 a.m. Friday that Khalil had lied about his affiliations when seeking a student visa. But he indicated that he was unlikely to be swayed by such an argument and said Khalil could otherwise go free after posting a $1 bond.<\/p>\n
Khalil\u2019s cause has been championed widely, including by some Jews who say that they disagree strongly with his Israel views but believe his arrest reflected inappropriate repression of free speech rights by the federal government.<\/p>\n