A US immigration judge in Louisiana ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump's administration can proceed with its deportation case against Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested in New York City last month.
The ruling was made by Judge Jamee Comans of the LaSalle Immigration Court, located inside a jail complex for immigrants surrounded by double-fenced razor wire run by private government contractors in rural Louisiana.
Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that has roiled Columbia's New York City campus, was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, holds Algerian citizenship and became a US lawful permanent resident last year. Khalil's wife, Noor Abdalla, is a US citizen.
