A Federal Judge in New Jersey has retained the case of a graduate of the University of Colombia Mahmoud Halil, rejecting the government’s request to move the case to Louisiana, where the Palestinian activist takes place after his arrest last month.
“The petitioner was in New Jersey on March 9 at 4:40 and the Congress required the petition to be accepted as filed with New Jersey at the same time. This gave this court a jurisdiction. The court was not defeated by the petitioner.
The opinion, unless it was appealed by the government, would clear the path of Fabiarz to resolve the more important issues of the continued detention of Khalil.
Halil, the leader of the protests at the Camp in Colombia last spring, was detained on March 8 at his student apartments in New York. He was taken to 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, then arrested in immigration detention in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before finding himself in a Louisiana detention center, his lawyers said.
After his lawyers filed a petition for the immediate release of Khalil, a Federal Judge in New York last month moved the case to New Jersey.
Khalil’s lawyers called on a federal judge to maintain his Habes case in New Jersey to prevent the government from moving Kafka-Eska by Khalil from one detention to another.
“We are grateful the court reasonably realized that the government could not try to manipulate the jurisdiction of the United States courts in a transparent attempt to protect their unconstitutional – and frankly chilling behavior,” Khalil’s lawyer said in a statement by Bahore Azmi. “We look forward to the next phase of this case, which is to bring out Mahmoud from the detention and in the arms of his family, and then to prove the Trump administration’s experience to deport Mahmoud and others is nothing but unconstitutional revenge for protected speech.”
New Jersey is also closer to Khalil’s wife, who is about to give birth.
“Today, I am relieved of the court’s decision to keep my husband’s case in New Jersey,” his wife Noor Abdala said in a statement on Tuesday. “This is an important step towards ensuring Mahmoud’s freedom, but there is much more to do a lot more. Since the countdown until the birth of our son begins and I am closer and closer to the date of expiration, I will continue to advocate for the freedom of Mahmoud and for his safe return.
Mahmoud Halil spoke with media members of the Rafa camp uprising at Columbia University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas group in Gaza, in New York, June 1, 2024.
Jeenah Moon/Reuters, File
During a hearing on Friday, whether the case should remain in New Jersey, Azmi told the judge that there was a “ban on shopping a forum” to find a court that may be most sympathetic to the government’s position.
Outside the court, Azmi said the government was simply trying to delay the decision on the actual legitimacy of Khalil’s detention.
A government lawyer, August Fltzh, claims that “the jurisdiction of the case belongs to Louisiana, because Halil is being held there.
“The worst route is the case to be heard in Louisiana,” Flutzh said during a hearing on Friday.
After deciding on the jurisdiction issue, the judge can now look at the essential question of whether the retention of Khalil, the holder of the green card, is legal.
Halil must appear before an immigration judge for the removal of removal on April 8.
He is among the half -dozen international students who have supported the Palestinians to be detained by the administration in recent weeks. No accusations have been filed against any of them.
The administration claims that the continued presence of students in the country undermines US foreign policy and takes away their status. Students’ lawyers claim that the administration punishes them for legal activity.
