A federal court in New Jersey, where Khalil’s attorneys are contesting his detention, made the decision to grant him bail on Friday. It is independent of the immigration court’s ongoing legal battles against his deportation.
Khalil was released on Friday, according to district court judge Michael Farbiarz, but it is not known when he will be freed. At 3:30 PM local time (19:30 GMT), the court scheduled a conference call to discuss the terms of his release.
Khalil will be moving back to New York to be with his family, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has been lobbying for him.
According to ACLU lawyer Noor Zafar, who spoke in a statement about the US constitutional provision protecting free speech, “This day is a joyous day for Mahmoud, for his family, and for everyone’s First Amendment rights.”
The government has continued to punish Mahmoud for expressing his political views about Palestine since he was detained in the first instance in March. However, today’s ruling underscores a fundamental First Amendment tenet: “The government cannot violate immigration law to defame speech.”
He was the first activist to be detained by President Donald Trump’s administration, who oversaw his illegal immigration status.
His case attracted national attention, particularly after the authorities denied him the chance to observe the birth of his firstborn son in April.
Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife, said in a statement that “after more than three months, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home to me and Deen, who never should have been separated from his father.”
Khalil has not been charged with any crimes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has instead chosen to rely on a flimsy immigration law provision that allows him to impose a ban on noncitizens’ removal if they are found to have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the US.
For free speech, it’s called the “Poster child.”
The crackdown is in violation of the US Constitution’s First Amendment, according to advocates.
The Trump administration has also received criticism for holding the students hostage while allowing them to remain free while their deportation is challenged. The administration sends immigration officers, sometimes dressed up and in plainclothes, to detain the students.
Federal courts have ordered the release of a number of other students the Trump administration is looking to deport, including Mohsen Mahdawi from Columbia and Rumeysa Ozturk from Turkish Tufts University.
Ozturk was detained after co-authoring an op-ed that demanded that her school follow the student government’s recommendation to stop selling products made by Palestinians by Israelis.
Khalil’s supporters claim that his detention in rural Louisiana will prevent him from from reaching his family and lawyers and move him to a more traditional rural area. His wife, a US citizen, lived with him in New York.
Kimberly Halkett, a reporter from Washington, DC, claimed Khalil’s release is a “blow to the Trump administration,” which has argued that his detention while pursuing his immigration case must continue.
