A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the federal government cannot deport or detain Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil for the foreign policy reasons cited by the Trump administration.
The preliminary injunction — issued by U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz of New Jersey — does not go into effect until Friday morning, giving the government a chance to appeal. But it marks a blow to the Trump administration’s push to remove Khalil, a green card holder who was detained by immigration agents in March and is currently being held in Louisiana.
The ruling focuses on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that Khalil’s “presence or activities would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.” Farbiarz had previously said that seeking to deport Khalil for that reason is probably unconstitutional, but had stopped short of issuing an injunction until Wednesday.
Farbiarz said, “the Court finds as a matter of fact that [Khalil’s] career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled — and this adds up to irreparable harm.”
Crucially, Farbiarz said his findings “have no impact on efforts to remove [Khalil] for reasons other than the Secretary of State’s determination.” That means the administration could still try to deport Khalil for allegedly leaving out details on his green card application — another reason that government lawyers have given for his detention.
But Farbiarz found that the government is almost certainly detaining Khalil right now because of the Rubio determination, and not due to issues with his green card application. He noted it’s very rare for green card holders to be held in detention for omitting information on their paperwork.
CBS News has reached out to the State Department and Justice Department for comment.
The Trump administration is pushing to deport Khalil and several other international students with links to pro-Palestinian campus activism. The government has typically cited a law allowing the government to deport people if the secretary of state believes their presence in the U.S. poses “adverse foreign policy consequences.”
Another Columbia student and green card holder involved in pro-Palestinian protests — Mohsen Mahdawi — was detained weeks after Khalil while attending what he was told was a citizenship interview, though a judge ordered Mahdawi’s release. Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, whose lawyers say she was targeted for co-writing a campus newspaper op-ed, was also detained for several weeks until a judge ordered her release. Both students could still face deportation proceedings.
The moves have drawn stiff pushback from critics, who argue the Trump administration is punishing students for First Amendment-protected speech. The judge in Mahdawi’s case compared the government’s conduct to the 1950s-era Red Scare and McCarthyism.
But the administration argues it has the right to revoke visas and has accused some of the students of antisemitic or threatening behavior, which the students have denied.
“We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio said in March.