The decision is considered a victory for Khalil but does not guarantee that it will be moved from detention in the southern state of Louisiana.
A judge of the Federal Court of the United States ruled in favor of the pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, allowing him to challenge the legality of his arrest in New Jersey rather than in Louisiana, where he is detained in a detention center without accusation.
The decision of the American district judge Michael Farbiarz marked on Tuesday the second time that the legal team of the administration of President Donald Trump failed to move the case of the student of the University of Columbia to the 5th Circuit Court of American Appeals in Louisiana – the most conservative court of appeal in the country – to expel Khalil.
Khalil’s lawyer Baher Azmy said that his team was grateful that the court understands the government’s “transparent attempt” to manipulate the jurisdiction of American courts to protect their “unconstitutional” and “scary” behavior.
Dr. Noor Abdalla, the pregnant wife of Khalil who is an American citizen, said that she had been relieved by the decision but “there is still a lot to do”, to release Khalil, whose green card was revoked by the American authorities.
Although the case of Tuesday was a victory for Khalil, he only established the jurisdictional dispute whose court could hear his attempts to contest the legality of the Trump administration to deport him – a dispute that was created when Khalil was detained in a new jersey of detention several hours after his arrest in Manhattan on March 8, before being transferred through the state lines.
Khalil’s case is considered a Trump’s effort test to expel pro-Palestinian activists who have not been accused of any crime.
The Trump administration said that she had revoked the visas of hundreds of foreign students who, according to him, participated in demonstrations that swept through university campuses across the United States, protesting the government’s military support for the War of Israel against Gaza.
Lawyers say that the Trump administration has poorly targeted people to have specific political opinions.
Khalil lawyers also asked Judge Farbiarz to release their client from detention in Louisiana as efforts to deport him in a separate case before an immigration court played and, in part, to allow him to be with his wife for the birth of their son.
A letter of doctor tabled in court considers that the baby must be owed on April 28.