The hearing of former Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student and former Palestinian activist in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday is expected to focus on freedom of speech.
US District Judge Jesse Furman puts pressure on the arrest of Halil, a permanent US resident. Halil, who led several Palestinian protests on the school campus, was arrested on Saturday by immigration enforcement agents in New York and taken to an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
Furman had previously ordered that Khalil, who holds the green card, would not be deported from the state so that the case would develop.
Halil's lawyers are expected to argue that activist arrests are unconstitutional and that he should be reunited with his wife, the American citizen.
“Mahmoud is very well known in favour of Palestinian rights, and is aggressive and openly speaking, so he is marked as a target,” said Ramtsi Kasem, a lawyer for Khalil. According to To the New York Times. “What's going on with him is unconstitutional, it's illegal, and we're going to do everything in our power to ensure that the Trump administration doesn't let it go in court.”
Halil has not been charged with a crime.
President Trump said Monday that Halil is a “funny foreign pro-Hamas student” and that similar arrests could come down Pike.
While on the campaign path, Trump repeatedly vowed to arrest US international students who participated in pro-Palestinian camps last year, arresting international students and fired them abroad.
Camps that emerged on university campuses across the country forced some universities to move classes online or cancel graduation ceremonies entirely. More than 2,000 arrests have been made.
The protests in New York City came on Saturday following Halil's arrest. Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are also calling for him to be released.
Fourteen House Democrats wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem on Tuesday to ask her to release Khalil, characterising him as “preparing for the birth of his first child as a political prisoner worthy of being in a New York home.”
