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Politics Judge orders release of Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention By Updated on: June 20, 2025 / 3:13 PM EDT / CBS News A federal judge in New Jersey on Friday ordered that Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil must be released from detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as his immigration proceedings play out. During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, Khalil's attorneys asked him to free Khalil from detention or transfer him to New Jersey. Farbiarz agreed, determining that Khalil is not a threat to the community, not a flight risk and that his detention...

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from the immigration detention center where he has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. Ruling from the bench in New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be “highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue to detain a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn’t been accused of any violence. In reaching his decision, he said Khalil is likely...

The $1 bond was paid. But for someone so eager to torch the American house, Khalil is oddly determined to keep a room in it. On Friday, the only door that opened was the one back to his cell. Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia’s most litigious Gaza sympathizer, had seemingly triumphed in federal court—only to find himself right back where he started. Down in Louisiana, where the alligators grow so mean. After days of breathless media coverage and a headline-generating injunction questioning the legality of Mahmoud Khalil’s detention, Judge Michael Farbiarz quietly reversed course. In a terse, two-page order, he declined to...

Hamas supporter Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder who led pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University in New York City, will not be released from ICE custody, a New Jersey District Judge ruled on Friday. New Jersey District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz rejected Khalil’s request for release, ruling on Friday that the anti-Israel agitator “did not put forward factual evidence as to why it might be unlawful to detain him” on a second charge, and “failed to make meaningful legal arguments.” “The Court preliminary enjoined the Respondents from detaining the Petitioner on a particular charge,” Judge Farbiarz wrote, noting, “It would be...

{No search results}Yet another U.S. district judge has ruled against the Trump administration as it tries to take action on crucial matters, this time as it applies to cases to do with immigration and terrorism. On Thursday, Judge Michael Farbiarz, of New Jersey, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, ruled that the administration cannot deport or detain Mahmoud Khalil, who has been in federal custody since early March and on track for deportation. Khalil, a foreign national from Syria, has participated in and even led pro-Hamas activity at Columbia University and participated in it at its sister school...

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the Trump administration cannot deport Mahmoud Khalil, the radical, pro-Hamas activist who was a graduate student at Columbia University. Random activist judges have overstepped their authority to rule against the Trump administration so many times in the last few months that it’s nearly impossible to keep up with all the rulings. Who appointed these judges to run the country? No one, and the American people are already sick and tired of this. FOX News reports: Federal judge sides with anti-Israel ringleader Mahmoud Khalil, halts Trump administration’s deportation bid A federal judge sided...

A federal judge on Wednesday barred the Trump administration from continuing to detain Mahmoud Khalil under a rarely cited law invoked by the secretary of state — and suggested that Mr. Khalil could be released as early as Friday. However, the judge, Michael E. Farbiarz, paused his own order to give the administration a chance to appeal, saying it would not go into effect until 9:30 a.m. on Friday. And he left a pathway for the government to continue to detain Mr. Khalil for other reasons, though he suggested he would be skeptical were authorities to do so. ***Though Judge...

Detained Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil will stay locked up in a Louisiana ICE facility for now — as a New Jersey judge refused to consider freeing him on bail during a hearing Friday. Newark federal court Judge Michael Farbiarz declined to hear arguments on whether to free the 30-year-old green card holder — who has become the face of President Trump’s crackdown on students protesting the Israel-Hamas war — during the hour-long hearing, which was attended by his pregnant wife. Instead, the judge said he’d rule first on the feds’ bid to move Khalil’s legal case challenging his deportation...