Mahmoud Khalil released from ice custody in Louisiana

The pro-Palestinian activist of the University of Columbia, Mahmoud Khalil, was released from an immigration and customs application center in Jena, Louisiana, on Friday night after more than three months in custody.

Khalil told journalists that the first thing he will do when he gets home is to hug his wife and son, who was born while he was in custody.

“The hundreds of men left behind should not be there in the first place,” Khalil told journalists, referring to other detainees. “The Trump administration is doing everything possible to dehumanize everyone here, whether it is an American citizen, an immigrant or simply a person on this land, it does not mean that you are less human.”

Khalil said he would have more to say at a press conference in New York on Saturday.

The earliest Friday, the American district judge Michael Farbiarz had issued an order granting Khalil’s release, a decision that was abruptly criticized by the Trump administration.

Khalil, a green card holder who is married to an American citizen, was held at a Louisian detention center since he was arrested by ICE agents in New York City in March.

The ruling arrived at the same time an immigration judge in Jena, Louisiana, denied Khalil’s asylum application and ordered him to remain detained, but the order of Judge Farbiarz replaces him.

“An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide whether Mr. Khalil must be released or detained,” said the Department of National Security. In a statement published online. “On the same day, an immigration judge denied Khalil’s link and ordered him to retire it, a dishonest district judge ordered him released. This is another example of how members of the outside the judicial branch out of control are undermining national security.

The judge indicated in order that Khalil’s liberation conditions will not include electronic monitoring or a requirement to be published immediately.

“The conditions of the bond will include other requirements that the Judge of the United States considers appropriate, even in terms of those states to which the petitioner can travel, and when the petitioner must deliver his passport or passports,” Farbiar wrote.

The conditions for the release of Khalil, as established by the Judge of the United States, Michael Hammer, include that he delivers his passport to the authorities at the Jena detention center, where he was retained, according to the court order. You must also restrict national trips where he and his in -laws live, as well as where he can have lawyers, appearances in the court and legislative meetings. The government will return its green card and there will be no electronic monitoring, according to the court order.

During the telephone hearing before Judge Hammer on Friday regarding the conditions of the bond, the lawyer of the Department of Justice argued that Khalil’s green card should not be returned to him because the immigration judge in Jena had just issued an order of removal. Khalil’s lawyers argued that he had to maintain his green card, allowing an appeal for the immigration judge’s ruling. Hammer agreed with Khalil’s lawyers and ordered the green card to be returned.

Farbiarz issued his order after denying a government motion to remain in the ruling for seven days.

During the audience, Farbiar said that the government did not try to demonstrate that Khalil’s liberation would irreparably damage them in some way, and that Khalil represented a risk of escape.

“To which all that evidence is added is the lack of violence, the lack of destruction of the property, the lack of anything that can be characterized as incitement to violence,” said the judge on Khalil, who helped lead the protests of the Columbia camp against the war in Gaza during spring.

A Khalil lawyer, Alina Das, reaffirmed Khalil’s belief that he is being punished for a speech that should be protected by the first amendment.

“The last government actions confirm what we have alleged in this request all the time, that the detention of reprisals is the objective of the government, that the purpose of each step that the Government has given in this case has been to guarantee that Mr. Khalil remains locked up until he is deported as reprisal and punishment for his speech and point of view,” he said.

Last week, Judge Farbiarz issued a preliminary judicial order that prohibits the Trump administration from continuing to Green letters.