By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration has faced judicial roadblocks while attempting to deport foreign pro-Palestinian students and protesters in the U.S., including on Friday when a judge ordered that Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil be released from immigration custody.
Trump has labeled the protesters as antisemitic and extremist sympathizers. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza with antisemitism and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.
Here are some prominent pro-Palestinian foreigners in the U.S. who were arrested without being charged with a crime, and subsequently ordered to be released by a judge:
MAHMOUD KHALIL
A prominent figure at Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, Khalil was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his Manhattan university residence on March 8.
Khalil, a Palestinian born and raised in a refugee camp in Syria, is a U.S. legal permanent resident and says he was punished for his political speech in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects free speech rights.
Khalil has previously condemned antisemitism and racism. His wife and son, who was born while Khalil was in prison, are U.S. citizens.
In ordering Khalil’s release on June 20, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said the government made no attempt to rebut evidence provided by Khalil’s lawyers that he was not a flight risk nor a danger to the public.
MOHSEN MAHDAWI
Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was released from U.S. immigration custody on April 30. Mahdawi, born and raised in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was arrested earlier in April as he arrived for an interview for his U.S. citizenship petition.
U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford said Mahdawi did not pose a danger to the public and was not a flight risk. The judge drew parallels between the current U.S. political climate and the Red Scare and McCarthyism eras of the last century when thousands were targeted for deportation due to political views.
RUMEYSA OZTURK
Turkish Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was released in early May after being held in an immigration detention center for over six weeks.
Her lawyers said she was punished for co-authoring an opinion piece in a student newspaper that criticized the school’s response to calls by students to divest from companies linked to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”
U.S. District Judge William Sessions said Ozturk, whose arrest video went viral, had raised a substantial claim that the sole reason she was being detained was “simply and purely the expression that she made or shared in the op-ed in violation of her First Amendment rights.”
BADAR KHAN SURI
A postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, Suri was released in mid-May, nearly two months after being taken into custody by federal immigration agents.
Suri, who is from India and was on a U.S. student visa, is married to an American citizen who is from Gaza.
Suri’s lawyer denied the government’s allegations that he supported Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Nia Williams)
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