(WASHINGTON) — In a court filing Friday, the Trump administration said it won’t release Columbia University pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz barred the Trump administration from seeking to deport or continue to detain Khalil based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that his continued presence in the country would pose a risk to foreign policy.
The judge stayed his injunction until 9:30 a.m. ET Friday, giving the Trump administration about 40 hours to appeal the decision.
In its filing Friday, the Justice Department attorneys said that Judge Farbiarz’ preliminary injunction does not prohibit the government from detaining Kahlil on a second set of grounds — however rare his detention on those grounds may be.
“While the Court made a factual finding that it was unlikely that Khalil would be detained on another basis … the Court never held that it would be unlawful for Respondents to detain Khalil based on another charge of removability,” DOJ lawyers wrote.
Khalil, a green card holder who is married to an American citizen, has been held in a Louisiana detention facility since ICE agents arrested him in the lobby of his apartment building in New York City on March 8.
In April, an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled that Khalil is deportable based on Rubio’s assertion that his continued presence and actions in the country pose an “adverse foreign policy consequence.” The judge has yet to rule on a second set of charges which stem from the Department of Homeland Security’s allegations that Khalil withheld information on his green card application.
But Judge Farbiarz said in his ruling that lawful permanent residents, like Khalil, who are accused of making misrepresentations on their applications are “virtually never detained pending removal.”
Trump administration officials have said Khalil was detained for his purported support of Hamas — a claim his legal team has rejected.
In a memo filed in the case, Rubio wrote that Khalil should be deported because of his alleged role in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States.”
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