Federal Court Hearing Set In Columbia Student's Detainment Over Pro-palestinian Protests

A Manhattan federal court hearing is scheduled Wednesday in a suit challenging the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student that the Trump Administration is trying to deport over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests at the school.

Immigration enforcement agents arrested Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident, in New York on Saturday and he has been moved to an immigration detention center in Louisiana.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman has ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers the legal challenge brought by his lawyers, who are seeking to have Khalil brought back to New York and released under supervision. They argue the government is unlawfully retaliating against him for his speech.

A joint filing for Khalil's lawyers and the government ahead of Wednesday's hearing said the government intends to argue that the Southern District of New York is not the proper venue for the case.

Columbia University became the center of a pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across college campuses nationwide last year, with more than 2,000 people were arrested in demonstrations.