After a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from imprisoning and deporting Mahmoud Khalil on one set of legal grounds, lawyers for the government now argue the prominent Columbia University student activist is being detained for an entirely different reason.
On Friday morning, Khalil’s legal team was preparing for his release from an immigration detention center in rural Louisiana, where he has been jailed for more than three months over the government’s allegations that his Palestinian activism is a threat to foreign policy.
