Judge gives Trump administration 24 hours to provide evidence of Mahmoud Khalil’s removability

(JENA, La.) — An immigration judge has given lawyers representing the Department of Homeland Security a little over 24 hours to provide Mahmoud Khalil’s legal team with evidence that he is removable from the U.S. under the allegations lobbed against him.

Khalil, legal permanent resident with a green card, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at his Columbia University housing in New York last month.

Khalil, a leader of the encampment protests at Columbia last spring, was detained on March 8, then taken to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before ending up in a Louisiana detention center, his attorneys said.

At an immigration hearing in Jena, Louisiana, on Tuesday, Judge Jamee Comans set another hearing for Friday to give Khalil’s team time to review the evidence and respond to it.

Comans said she will then make a determination whether he is removable or order him to be released.

Khalil’s wife, who appeared via video feed at his hearing, is set to give birth within “a couple of weeks,” according to Khalil’s lawyer, Marc Van Der Hout.