Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil was released from federal detention on Friday following a judge's order.
Khalil left an ICE detention facility in Louisiana and is expected to return to his family in New York.
In reaching his decision, the judge insisted that Khalil is not a danger to the community and is likely not a flight risk.
“No one should fear being jailed for speaking out in this country,” said Alina Das, co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law, who argued before the court. “We are overjoyed that Mr. Khalil will finally be reunited with his family while we continue to fight his case in court.”
"Mahmoud endured a lot over the past three and a half months, but we believed from the start that this day would come, because what the government is doing to him and so many others blatantly violates the First Amendment," said Brett Max Kaufman, senior counsel at ACLU. "We couldn't be happier that he is finally heading home."
Khalil was arrested on March 8 in New York as the Trump administration launched a broad crackdown on campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. He was later transferred to an immigration detention center in Louisiana, where he remains in custody.
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While detained, Khalil missed his graduation and the birth of his son.
“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,” said Dr. Noor Abdalla, Mahmoud Khalil’s wife.
Khalil is a legal permanent U.S. resident and had served as a spokesperson for campus activists critical of Israel’s retaliation against Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.
