Mahmoud Khalil’s case to remain in New Jersey after judge denies US government’s bid to move it

The case against pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil will remain in New Jersey after a judge denied a government motion to have the case transferred to Louisiana where the Columbia graduate student remains in federal custody since his arrest last month.

The case against pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil will remain in New Jersey after a judge denied a government motion to have the case transferred to Louisiana where the Columbia graduate student remains in federal custody. Nearly a month after Khalil’s arrest, US District Judge Michael Farbiarz concluded the New Jersey district court has jurisdiction over the case because Khalil was in the state when his attorneys filed a habeas corpus motion seeking to challenge the legality of his detention, according to a 67-page decision filed Tuesday. Khalil, a negotiator for pro-Palestinian student protesters in talks with Columbia’s administration over last spring’s contentious campus encampment against the Israel-Hamas war, was arrested outside of his apartment on Columbia University’s campus on March 8. Khalil is one of several foreign nationals affiliated with prestigious universities who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student with a valid student visa studying at Tufts University in Massachusetts, was taken into custody by masked immigration agents last month. In a filing Tuesday, the US Attorney’s Office in Boston opposed Ozturk’s habeas petition, saying the Boston court does not have jurisdiction in the case because the Tufts University student was transferred out of the state shortly after her arrest.