March 10 (UPI) -- A federal judge has blocked the deportation of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who led student protests against Israel's war in Gaza at Columbia University. Khalil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend as protesters took to the streets of New York City on Monday to demand his release.
Judge Jesse Furman said Khalil will remain in the United States "to preserve the court's jurisdiction." The judge is considering a petition challenging Khalil's arrest and planned deportation, according to court documents.
"To preserve the Court's jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise," Furman wrote.
The Department of Homeland Security announced Khalil's arrest on Saturday "in support of" executive orders signed by President Donald Trump prohibiting anti-Semitism.
"Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization," the agency said.
On Monday, pro-Palestinian protesters marched in the "Release Mahmoud Khalil, Hands Off Our Students, ICE Off Our Campus" rally in the streets of Lower Manhattan in New York City.
Khalil's Attorney Amy Greer, who said he was taken into custody Saturday while at his university-owned home, described his arrest as "terrible and inexcusable" and "wrong."
"ICE's arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government's open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza," Greer said. "The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech."
Khalil, a Palestinian refugee raised in Syria, was the lead student negotiator for the encampment at the Manhattan campus last year when Columbia was the center of nationwide student protests held nationwide against the war in Gaza and American support for Israel.
Greer said ICE told Khalil his student visa had been revoked, but he is a legal permanent resident with a green card and married to an American citizen. She also stated that she and his wife were told he was transferred to an ICE facility in New Jersey's Union County, but when his spouse attempted to visit him, she was then told he was not being kept there.
Greer said at the time she didn't know where he is currently being held, but as of Monday the online detainee locator on the ICE website lists that a Mahmoud Khalil born in Syria is currently being kept at the Jena/LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana. It is unclear if that is the same person as Greer's client.
Greer had further said Khalil could be transferred as far as Louisiana.
Student protestors had created an encampment on Columbia's lawn last year, during which Khalil, a graduate student at the School of International and Public Affairs, served as a negotiator with university administrators on behalf of student protesters. He had told the BBC he had been temporarily suspended by the university.
The Trump administration announced last week it was revoking $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, accusing it of failing to fight anti-Semitism on its campus. Columbia University confirmed Sunday that there have been reports of ICE around campus and said the university "has and will continue to follow the law."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted to X Sunday that "We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."
On Monday, Trump vowed Khalil's arrest will be the first "of many to come."
"We will find, apprehend and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, "never to return again."
