NEW YORK – A U.S. judge ordered on Friday that Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil be released from immigration custody, a major victory for rights groups that challenged what they called the Trump administration’s unlawful targeting of a pro-Palestinian activist.

Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan on March 8. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has called the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part.

Khalil condemned antisemitism and racism in interviews with CNN and other news outlets last year. Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, says he is being punished for his political speech in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ruled on June 11 the government was violating Khalil’s free speech rights by detaining him under a little-used law granting the U.S. secretary of state power to seek deportation of non-citizens whose presence in the country was deemed adverse to U.S. foreign policy interests.

Judge Decline June 13 Release of Khalil

But the judge declined on June 13 to order Khalil’s release from a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, after President Donald Trump’s administration said Khalil was being held on a separate charge that he withheld information from his application for lawful permanent residency.

Khalil’s lawyers deny that allegation and say people are rarely detained on such charges. On June 16, they urged Farbiarz to grant a separate request from their client to be released on bail or be transferred to immigration detention in New Jersey to be closer to his family in New York.

Khalil, 30, became a U.S. permanent resident last year, and his wife and newborn son are U.S. citizens.

Trump administration lawyers wrote in a June 17 filing that Khalil’s request for release should be addressed to the judge overseeing his immigration case, an administrative process over whether he can be deported, rather than to Farbiarz, who is considering whether Khalil’s March 8 arrest and subsequent detention were constitutional.

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(Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Luc Cohen in New York)